Marcos loyalists are set to submit their manifestation to the High Court in relation to petitions against a hero’s burial for the late strongman
‘MARCOS PA RIN.’ Marcos supporters call for the burial of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Photo from the Marcos Presidential Center
MANILA, Philippines – Supporters of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos have urged the Supreme Court (SC) to allow a hero’s burial for the former president, saying this would pave the road for peace and national unity.
Marcos loyalist groups such as the United Marcos Loyalist of the Philippines (UMLP), Kilusang Kaisipan at Diwang Pilipino, and the BBM Youth Movement are set to submit a manifestation to the High Court signed by thousands of supporters on Tuesday, September 27.
UMLP president Vince Avena said that their manifestation stresses on “forgiveness” so the nation, he said, can move on.
“Whatever former president Ferdinand Marcos has done in the past, the Almighty God has already judged him,” Avena added.
Marcos supporters are leading an online and house-to-house signature campaign for the late strongman amid 6 petitions opposing his burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos had earlier expressed her support for the campaign for a hero’s burial for her father.
“Nagpapirma po kami hindi lamang bilang suporta sa pamilya Marcos kundi ang kagustuhan naming mailibing na si Pangulong Marcos (We initiated the signature campaign not only to support the Marcos family but also out of our desire to finally bury president Marcos),” said Harrold Toledana of BBM Youth.
Roberto dela Cerna of KKDP said the signatures are “for national healing, peace, and unity.”
Lawyer Hyacinth Antonio of the Marcos family said that they want to show the High Court that there are Filipinos who want the late dictator buried in the national shrine.
The groups’ manifestation emphasized that Marcos was a former president and soldier. The petitioners in the case – mostly Martial Law victims – are also expected to file their manifestations on Tuesday.
The petitioners have argued that the late president does not deserve a slot in the national shrine because burying him there violates Republic Act 289, which created the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Another group of petitioners have presented a “constitutional argument” in blocking a hero’s burial for Marcos.
After two rounds of oral arguments, the High Court extended the status quo ante order on the state burial to October 18. The interment was originally set in September. – Rappler.com
MANILA, Philippines – Martial law victims fighting to ensure that such a dark period in history will never be repeated are not necessarily bitter or vengeful, according to former president Benigno Aquino III.
In fact, Aquino, whose family was a victim of the Marcos dictatorship, said some of them were a personal source of inspiration for being able to move on with grace despite what they had been through.
The former president was asked about the people he looked up to aside from his parents who were democracy icons.
Former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated in 1983 after a long battle with the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
His mother Corazon was installed into the presidency when a bloodless people’s uprising occurred three years after the assassination.
Aquino said that an aunt and the nanny who took care of him when he was young were both oppressed during martial law but he never heard them talk about “getting even” or wishing that their persecutors experience the same things that happened to them.
Aquino disclosed his nanny, who was six months pregnant, was arrested three times during Marcos’ time. The only offense he could think of was that she was under the employ of a family seeking democracy.
Aquino had also been talking about the sufferings of his family while his late father was incarcerated for seven years before they went into exile in Boston.
A documentary shown during his last Independence Day rites at the Palace was again screened during the informal forum on the night of Sept. 23 at St. Theresa’s College in Quezon City. It was the day that martial law was implemented though it was signed on Sept. 21, 1972.
Aquino also cited former lawmaker and Commission on Human rights chair Loretta Ann Rosales as among those who were not thinking of personal vengeance while continuing to defend human rights.
Listening to them could make people pause and think: “Why is the hatred of the nuisances… deeper?” Aquino said, adding these people must have found the “grace of God” in their sufferings.
Another idol, he said, was South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist Nelson Mandela, who was incarcerated for 27 years but held no rancor against his enemies.
Aquino said he had a one-on-one talk with Mandela, who was president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, when he came here in the country and met with his mother.
Aquino said Mandela, during his detention, was reportedly being poisoned little by little, and “to see somebody without bitterness” after all of that was remarkable.
“(I was) trying to imagine how, (while) you were oppressed for so long you were filled with anger… I have so many examples,” the former president said.
But despite being passionate about the martial law issue, Aquino said the issue on whether Marcos should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani was beyond him.
“I’ve kept quiet about the Marcos burial because I’ve got so many years to say my point and it’s time to hear everybody else’s point,” he said, noting the vocal opposition of various sectors when President Duterte announced his approval of the burial.
“They have shared their own stories,” he said.
Supposedly scheduled this month, the Marcos burial at the heroes’ cemetery was halted by a status quo ante order issued by the Supreme Court, where various oppositions were filed by victims of human rights abuses during the martial law years.
During the gathering on Friday night, Aquino stressed the importance of keeping a permanent record to prevent attempts at historical revisionism.
Those opposing the burial of Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery believe that the state should not pay tribute to a dictator or it will send the wrong signal to the young generation.
We take a look back at the Martial Law declaration, and the consequent events that shaped Philippine history
MANILA, Philippines – On the evening of September 23, 1972, the late president Ferdinand Marcos appeared on national television to formally announce that the Philippines was under Martial Law.
This began almost 10 years of military rule in the country. Marcos formally ended Martial Law on January 17, 1981, but it was not until 1986 when democracy was restored – after the dictator and his family were forced into exile, overthrown by a popular uprising that came to be known as the People Power Revolution.
On the 44th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law, we take a look back at some of the lingering questions behind the declaration, and the consequent events that shaped Philippine history.
STRONGMAN RULE. The martial law years put all power of government in the hands of one man, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Photo from the Presidential Museum and Library
Why was Martial Law declared?
When Marcos signed Proclamation 1081 on September 21, 1972, he cited the communist threat as justification. His diary, meanwhile, said the proclamation of Martial Law became a “necessity”, following the supposed ambush of then defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.
There were subsequent reports that said the ambush was staged, with the Official Gazette citing Enrile’s admission in 1986 that it was faked to justify the imposition of Martial Law. (READ: Martial Law 101: Things you should know)
STRONGMAN RULE. The martial law years put all power of government in the hands of one man, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Photo from the Presidential Museum and Library
There were also indications that the plan to declare Martial Law had long been in the works. According to the Official Gazette, several people had received prior information about Marcos’ plan. The late dictator had also hinted at it in his address to the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association as early as May 17, 1969 – more than 3 years before the actual declaration.
What happened under Martial Law?
Through various general orders, Marcos effectively put the entire power of government under the rule of one man: his own. He was to lead the nation and direct the operation of the entire government.
He ordered the armed forces to prevent or suppress any act of rebellion. Curfew hours were enforced, group assemblies were banned, privately-owned media facilities shuttered. (READ: Marcos’ Martial Law orders)
Those considered threats to Marcos – such as prominent politicians and members of the media – were rounded up and arrested by members of the military and the notorious Philippine Constabulary. (LOOK BACK: The Philippine Constabulary under Marcos)
What did the Martial Law years look like?
There are those who hail the discipline and supposed order of the New Society, as Marcos called it, and considered that period as among the “best years” of the Philippines.
Among the myths: that the Philippines enjoyed a golden age under the Marcoses. Various reports and historical accounts debunk this; while it is true that infrastracture spending increased during that period, it came at a staggering cost: plunging the Philippines in billions of dollars in debt. From $8.2 billion in 1977, the country’s debt ballooned to $24.4 billion in 1982 – or within a period of just 5 years. (READ: Marcos years marked ‘golden age’ of PH economy? Look at the data)
The Marcoses also plundered the country’s coffers, with various estimates putting the amount at between $5 billion to $10 billion.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government, the body going after the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth, is still recovering this money; over the past 30 years, at least P170 billion have been recovered.
About 70,000 people were imprisoned and 34,000 tortured, according to Amnesty International, while 3,240 were killed from 1972 to 1981. During this dark chapter of Philippine history, thousands of people were subject to various forms of torture. Prisoners were electrocuted, beaten up, and strangled. They were burned with a flat iron or cigars. Water was poured down their throats, then forced out by beating. Women were stripped naked and raped, various objects forced into their genitals.
Historian Alfred McCoy wrote about Marcos’ elite torture units, whose specialty was psychological torture and humiliation aside from the physical pain.
It has been many years since then, but the victims have not forgotten – especially as the Marcoses have neither acknowledged their crimes nor made reparations for their sins.
At the Supreme Court hearing on the proposed Marcos burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery, victims were asked to speak before the Court to recount their horrifying ordeals.
The Chief Justice told them: “The Court is listening.”
Hilda Narciso was among the female detainees repeatedly raped while in detention. She recalls how she moved forward from the nightmare that was Martial Law.
HEALER. Martial Law victim turned healer Hilda Narciso narrates how she moved on after sexual abuse under the dictatorship.
MANILA, Philippines – To describe Hilda Narciso’s torture during Martial Law as disturbing is an understatement. Her torture was unimaginable, the kind you would not want to hear from someone who experienced it first-hand.
“Iyong pakiramdam na para kang binaboy, binastos, humiliated, degraded, dehumanized as a person. Mabuti pa ang basahan kaya mong linisin, ang tao parang hindi,” Hilda described what she went through under the hands of the military when she was held captive.
(That feeling like you were molested, disrespected, humiliated, degraded, dehumanized as a person. Rags are better off because they can be cleaned but a person, it seems not.)
Hilda was a teacher and a church worker during the dictatorship. She visited a German pastor in Davao City and spent the night in his home. That same evening a group of 30 military men raided the house and arrested the pastor, and the other people living in the house, Hilda included.
They were taken after the owners of the house were suspected of conspiracy to commit rebellion. Hilda was just at the wrong place and time.
She was taken to a separate car, different from that where pastor Volker Schmidt and two other companions, Anna Mae Morallos and Jethro Dionisio, were brought to. Alone, she was handcuffed, blindfolded and molested as the men interrogated her.
In detention
When they reached the “safe house”, where “only the military are safe”, she was brought to a room.
“I was brought to a room then I heard a voice of a person who told them to go out. I presumed he was the head of the raiding team. I was not able to defend myself. He had me for himself. I was raped,” she recalled.
That was just the first of a series of sexual abuse she painfully went through under the military.
“After that he brought me out and I was ganged up. A lot of males and hands were still [on me] different penises were forced down my mouth. It was so disgusting. Then while they molest you, you just want to feel you’re dead. They were fingering my vagina,” she continued.
Out of an outpour of mixed emotions – mostly anger, she hurled: “Don’t you have daughters? Girlfriends? Sisters, or mothers? Anyone you love. What if this was done to them, how would you feel?”
Her suffering did not stop there as she was detained for the next 6 months.
Hilda would recall how she, her friends, and 85 political prisoners were inhumanely treated: they slept on floors while mosquitoes buzzed around their humid cells; they were fed with rotten fish that had worms.
Their captors also deprived them of sunning hours and disallowed them brief freedom from darkness. But when they were allowed to go out, they would force some of their fellow detainees to run as they would be shot with a gun.
“It’s like you’re not human anymore. Imagine an animal held captive,” she said.
Help and heal
Even while in detention, Hilda fought to file a case against her abusers. She was the first one to pursue a rape case against the military at the time. But it was dropped for lack of evidence. (WATCH: Rappler’s Martial Law playlist)
“My lady lawyer did not do much. When I had to undergo a medical exam, she wasn’t around. I was left alone with the military. The doctor’s assessment was that it can’t be traced that I was raped but she can trace I had abortion prior to my arrest, [which did not happen]. I was harassed.”
Given the miserable situation, Hilda just drew inspiration from her experience to help others who were sexually abused like her.
She spoke in public about her horrific experience after she was released. “I asked for death during the time so what [am I] afraid of? Just to help people who came out in the open just to talk about it.”
Later on, she was invited by international groups such as Amnesty International to talk. Going abroad opened her eyes to expand the way she helps and heals.
She helped set up advocacy groups that felt the oppression of the government during the dictatorship such as Gabriela and Selda (Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto).
To better heal, she flew to Denmark to study therapy that eventually led her to founding the Women Crisis Center. She also improved her expertise on healing using Oriental medicine, which involves acupuncture and energy healing.
Healing of the land
Even decades after Martial Law, Hilda continues to talk about her nightmare. While she continues to heal, the “healing of the land” has yet to happen, she said.
“There’s a different level of healing for every individual. I am single person, but many of them are married and they have children. Many of them can’t talk too much and they keep it from their children and so they cannot understand,” she added.
When the issue on the proposed hero’s burial for the late president Ferdinand Marcos erupted, Hilda – among the petitioners in the Supreme Court opposing the dictator’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani – said this would not bring “healing for humanity”.
She urged others to be critical and ask about what happened during Martial Law in judging history. “Why was the Commission on Human Rights [set up] after [Marcos was ousted]? Why was the Presidential Commission on Good Government established to run after the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth?”
“In this fight, we have to think not only of ourselves but also of others – other people who suffered under Martial Law.” – Rappler.com
President Duterte says he wants to revive the Philippine Constabulary – the law enforcement force that became notorious for human rights abuses during the Martial Law years
MILITARY RULE. President Ferdinand Marcos meets with military leaders for Martial Law instructions. Photo from the Presidential Museum and Library PH
MANILA, Philippines – Days before the Philippines is set to mark the 44th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law, President Rodrigo Duterte made another callback to history: announcing his plan to revive the Philippine Constabulary (PC).
He needed to do so, he said, to fight urban terrorism.
“I will return the Philippine Constabulary under the 4 commands – army and the Philippine Constabulary because I need people in urban terrorism like the [Special Action Forces],” Duterte said in a speech before a military camp on Tuesday, September 20.
The PC was the national police force that began under the American regime in 1901. It eventually became part of the military and was in charge of maintaining peace and order.
But it became infamous during the martial law years of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, who used the PC to implement his strongman rule and arrest those deemed critical of the dictatorship.
Martial law rule
On September 21, 1972, Marcos signed Proclamation 1081, placing the Philippines under Martial Law purportedly due to the communist threat. But his diary entry for September 22, 1972 cited the alleged ambush of then defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile as the triggering force behind the declaration. Marcos went on national television on September 23, 1972, to make the formal announcement.
But even before the declaration, Marcos’ plan to take over government had been known to a number of people. According to the Official Gazette, the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr had exposed “Oplan Sagittarius” during his September 13, 1972 privilege speech. Aquino spoke about a supposed plan to place Metro Manila and outlying areas under the control of the PC.
Following the declaration of Martial Law, the PC took the lead in its implementation. Marcos had ordered the takeover of private establishments and the arrest of activists – orders followed through by the PC.
Under Presidential Decree 170, signed in April 1973, the defense secretary was given the power to place any city or municipal police force under the control of the PC.
Human rights abuses
The martial law years came to be remembered by some as a time of strict discipline, but to hundreds of victims of the Marcos years, it was a dark period of human rights abuses.
Marcos’ orders gave the military the authority to arrest and detain anyone going against the government or deemed subversive. In General Order No. 62, issued in October 1977, Marcos allowed the defense secretary and his authorized law enforcement officials to issue an arrest, search and seizure order (ASSO) for various offenses ranging from robbery and arson to murder and kidnapping.
The victims who were picked up during that time remember being detained on trumped up charges or unclear allegations.
But arresting and detaining known oppositionists were not the only tasks of the military and the PC then. Various historical and personal accounts point to them as the ones behind the torture and killing of hundreds.
Former congressman Neri Colmenares was one of those arrested and tortured by members of the PC. When he was arrested as an 18-year-old activist, he was strangled and made to play Russian Roulette – a torture method where a bullet is loaded into one chamber of a revolver, the cylinder spun, and the victim forced to pull the trigger to his own head.
In “Dark Legacy: Human rights under the Marcos regime,” historian Alfred McCoy wrote about elite torture units during the Martial Law years whose officers were “the embodiment of an otherwise invisible terror.”
The most notorious of these units were the 5th Constabulary Security Unit (CSU) and the Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (MISG).
The 5th CSU was known for the capture of communist leaders, such as Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison. The dreaded unit became infamous for its use of various torture methods, such as water cure, electric shocks, and psychological torture.
Among its prominent members were then Lieutenant Rodolfo Aguinaldo, Lt. Colonel Billy Bitbit, and Lt. Colonel Rodolfo Tor.
Meanwhile, McCoy described the MISG’s commander, Colonel Rolando Abadilla, as one who “towered over other heavies in that closed, tight-knit, psychotic club of martial-law enforcers.”
Abadilla and two comrades, Robert Ortega and Panfilo Lacson, “tortured together for over a decade,” McCoy wrote.
The historian said Marcos’ interrogation units “practiced a distinctive form of theatrical torture” that relied more on psychological humiliation than physical pain.
From 1972 to 1981, an estimated 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 tortured, and 3,240 killed, according to Amnesty International.
Post-Marcos
Following Marcos’ ouster through the mass uprising that came to be known as the People Power Revolution, the new 1987 Constitution was crafted, which provided for a police force that was “national in scope and civilian in character.”
This led to the signing in December 1990 of Republic Act No. 6975, “An Act Establishing the Philippine National Police under a Reorganized Department of the Interior and Local government (DILG),” which took effect on January 1, 1991.
The merger of the PC and the Integrated National Police – the police force for cities and large towns – led to the organization of the current Philippine National Police, which became operational on January 29, 1991.
(UPDATED) Senator Bam Aquino says any online effort to revise history can be countered by an educational system that provides students with the right foundation on what happened during Martial Law
MARTIAL LAW. President Ferdinand Marcos meets with military leaders for Martial Law instructions. File photo from the Presidential Museum and Library PH
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Department of Education (DepEd) has committed to a curriculum change that will show the “complete” picture of Martial Law, including the “corruption and human rights abuses” during that time.
This was revealed by Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV on Tuesday, September 20, after the Senate committee on education, arts, and culture conducted a hearing on the country’s Martial Law education.
“Ngayon, Secretary Briones herself said na itong curriculum change, sisikapin nila na buo iyong picture, mas makikita ng mga kabataan natin iyong downside ng Martial Law, which of course, is the corruption and human rights abuses,” Aquino, who chairs the committee, said in an interview after the hearing.
(Now, Secretary Briones herself said this curriculum change, they will try to complete the picutre, and the youth will see the downside of Martial Law which, of course, is the corruption and human rights abuses.)
The hearing was held on the eve of the 44th anniversary of Martial Law. On September 21, 1972, then President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation 1081, which placed the entire Philippines under Martial Law, until 1981 or almost a decade later.
During the Tuesday hearing, Aquino lamented the revision of history regarding Martial Law. Aquino even showed an old textbook which painted a rosy picture of the Martial Law era.
The textbook, he said, did not include anything about the “theft” during that time, as well as the people who were imprisoned and killed. (READ: Martial Law 101: Things you should know)
“Nakakahiya sa mga tao gaya ni [Secretary] Briones. Siya mismo Martial Law victim. Siya mismo nahirapan noong panahong iyon. It’s a disservice and a slap in the face for those victims na parang kinakalimutan natin ang masamang nangyari noong panahon,” Aquino said.
(It is embarassing to do that to people like Secretary Briones. She herself is a Martial Law victim. She herself suffered during that time. It’s a disservice and a slap in the face for those victims if we forget the atrocities during that time.)
In a statement, DepEd Undersecretary Dina Ocampo explained that martial law in the basic education curriculum is included not only in the subject Araling Panlipunan or Social Sciences, but also in other subjects like Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao.
“Older kids might be more able to handle narratives, but as for the younger children, we will have to be very careful. Balancing authenticity of sources and making it age-appropriate are the challenges,” she added.
Briones said the goal is to teach children to be critical.
“We teach human rights and democracy as early as Grade 2. In Grade 6, we already include a portion of Martial Law in history. The theme is human rights, there is a chapter in Grade 6 about dictatorship not just in the Philippines but all over the world,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.
Before Briones took office, she had said that her department’s review of history books will cover the administration of all Philippine presidents, and not just that of Marcos’.
The law mandates the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission to work with DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education to make sure that the curricula from basic to tertiary education include teachings on Martial Law atrocities, and the lives and sacrifices of human rights violations victims.
He said that any online effort to revise history can be countered by an educational system that provides students with the right foundation on what happened during Martial Law.
Citing National Historical Commission of the Philippines Chair Maria Serena Diokno, Aquino said the atrocities of Martial Law are no longer disputable as these are already historical facts.
“Natatakot ba tayo o nahihiya na pag-usapan ang masasamang bagay sa ating kasaysayan? Palagay ko, kailangan nating harapin iyan so we won’t repeat the mistakes of the past at iyong ating bayan din, makita natin na buo ang ating kasaysayan. Wala tayong kinakalimutan na mga bagay bagay.”
(Are we afraid or embarassed to talk about the bad things about our history? I think we have to face those so we won’t repeat the mistakes of the past, and for our country to see a complete picture of our history. We are not forgetting anything.)
Aquino said Martial Law won’t be taught yet this year using textbooks since DepEd is still going through a transition.
Still, he lauded some schools where teachers “do their best to teach about it” and take the initiative to use their own learning materials.
“Alam naman iyan ng DepEd but we’re hoping that in the years to come, itong curriculum na mas kumpleto, mas naipapakita iyong masasamang nangyari din, iyon iyong gamitin sa ating mga eskuwelahan,” Aquino added.
(DepEd knows that,but we’re hoping that in the years to come, a curriculum that is complete and one that shows the atrocities of that time will be used in schools.)
