It’s convenient to look at the past with rose-colored glasses instead of with memories of needles in your nail beds, electric wires attached to your genitals, and the barrel of a gun thrust inside your mouth
Majority of comments on articles about Martial Law seem to be from staunch defenders of that era. There are and will always be citizens who see those years as an era of peace and prosperity in our country.
We don’t need to debate that. Instead we simply need to tell, retell and listen to the stories of those who survived those years. As the younger generation we need to do our own research, take the blinders off our eyes and learn what exactly life was like during Martial Law before coming up with flowery images of those years as a beautiful moment in history.
Silence by force
You would never have seen an article such as this as I would have already been taken, tortured, and killed for my opinions. If Martial Law were still in effect, bloggers who wrote anything even remotely critical of the government or its cronies would be jailed like they do in other countries.
There would be none of your Facebook rants about the administration, Metro Manila traffic, or even the outfit a politician is wearing. In fact, there wouldn’t be Facebook, Instagram, and Gmail in the Philippines the way these websites are banned in China.
If I wrote during Martial Law, I could be taken from my home the way 23-year-old Lily Hilao was for being a prolific writer for her school paper at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. In April 1973, Lily was taken by the military, and was raped and tortured in front of her 16-year-old sister. By the time Lily’s family retrieved her dead body, it bore cigarette burns on her lips, injection marks on her arms, bruises and gun barrel marks. Her internal organs were removed and her vagina was sawed off to cover signs of torture and sexual abuse. Liliosa Hilao is considered to be the first female casualty and martyr of Martial Law.
Zero criticism
Martial Law engineer Juan Ponce Enrile defined subversion during a 1977 BBC interview: “anybody who goes against the government or who tries to convince people to go against the government – that is subversion.” Proclamation 1081 gave the military the authority to arrest, detain, and execute anyone who even dared to breathe sadly about the Marcos administration.
Archimedes Trajano was only 21 when he questioned Imee Marcos on why she was the National Chairman of the Kabataang Barangay during an open forum. He was forcibly taken from the venue by Imee’s bodyguards, and was tortured and thrown out of a building window, all because the presidential daughter was irked by his question.
Maria Elena Ang was a 23-year-old UP Journalism student when she was arrested and detained. She was beaten, electrocuted, water cured, and sexually violated during her detention.
Dr Juan Escandor was a young doctor with UP-PGH who was tortured and killed by the Philippine Constabulary. When his body was recovered, a pathologist found that his skull had been broken open, emptied and stuffed with trash, plastic bags, rags and underwear. His brain was stuffed inside his abdominal cavity.
Boyet Mijares was only 16 years old in 1977 when he received a call that his disappeared father (whistleblower and writer Primitivo Mijares) was still alive. The caller invited the younger Mijares to see him. A few days later, Boyet’s body was found dumped outside Manila, his eyeballs protruding, his chest perforated with multiple stab wounds, his head bashed in, and his hands, feet and genitals mangled.
Trinidad Herrera was a community leader in Tondo when she was arrested in 1977. In this video she recounts being electrocuted on her fingers, breasts, and vagina until her interrogators were pleased with her answers to their questions.
Neri Colmenares was an 18-year-old activist when he was arrested and tortured by members of the Philippine Constabulary. Aside from being strangled and made to play Russian Roulette, he witnessed fellow detainees being electrocuted through wires inserted into their penises, as well as being buried alive in a steel drum.
Hilda Narciso was a church worker when she was arrested, confined in a small cell, fed a soup of worms and rotten fish, and repeatedly gang-raped.
Necessary methods
60,000 were arrested during the first year of Martial Law alone, and many of their stories will never be told. Michael Chua wrote a paper detailing the torture methods used during the Marcos regime.
Aside from electrocution of body parts and genitals, it was routine to waterboard political prisoners, burn them using cigarettes and flat irons, strangle them using wires and steel bars, and rub pepper on their genitals. Women were stripped naked, made to sit on ice blocks or stand in cold rooms, and were sexually assaulted using objects such as eggplants smeared with chili peppers.
Forty-three years have passed. Time, as well as the circus that is Philippine governance make it easy to forget Martial Law as the darkest and most terrible moments in Philippine history. Many of its victims have died or have chosen to remain silent – silence being most understandable because these stories are truly difficult to remember, and much harder to tell.
Stories need to be told
Yet these horrific stories need to be told over and over until we realize that the pretty cover of the book of the Marcos years is actually full of monster stories. We need to bring the graphic accounts of torture and murder to light so that those who rest comfortably in their illusions that the Marcos years were pleasant will at least be stirred.
Instead we often hear from those who want to erase the evils of the past, those who tell us that these young people, many of them barely past their childhoods when they were tortured and killed, were violent rebels who sought to overthrow the government. Never mind that it was one of the most corrupt and cruel dictatorships the world has ever known, and that it was by the efforts of these young heroes that the reign of the Marcoses ended.
Majority of Martial Law victims were in their 20s and 30s at that time – the same age our younger citizens are now – those who have the luxury of shrugging off the Marcos years as a wonderful time. Unscathed by a more cruel past, the younger generation is only too eager to criticize the current state of our government and our people as being undisciplined and requiring an iron fist such as the one Marcos used to supposedly create peace in the past.
They forget that if we were still under Martial Law (or should it return), such sentiments of “subversion” could cost them their lives, and that the same freedom and voice they use to reminisce about a time they know nothing about would have been muted and extinguished if we did not have the democracy we enjoy today.
Hindsight is always 20-20, as they say. It’s convenient to look at the past with rose-colored glasses instead of memories of needles in your nail beds, electric wires attached to your genitals, and a barrel of a gun thrust inside your mouth, the way thousands of Martial Law victims suffered and still suffer to this day.
Just because it didn’t happen to you or your family doesn’t mean it didn’t happen to more than 70,000 victims during that time. Just because you were spared then doesn’t mean you will be spared the next time this iron fist you wish for comes around.
(UPDATED) Among the assets awarded to the state – already sequestered by the PCGG – are vast tracts of land in 5 areas worth P511M as of 2006
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – A division of the Philippine anti-graft court on Monday, January 4, ordered the Marcoses and the Lim family that owns Taggat Industries to return all the properties claimed by government.
The Sandiganbayan Second Division decided Civil Case Number 0030 that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) filed in 1987, a year after dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted.
The original defendants in the 28-year-old case were Alfonso Lim Sr (who died in 2002), Alfonso Lim Jr, Marcos-time Environment Minister Teodoro Peña, Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos, and several corporations.
The Marcoses’ 3 children – incumbent Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, and Irene Marcos-Araneta – were also named substitute defendants through a Sandiganbayan order in 1991.
Among the properties sequestered by the PCGG and awarded by the Sandiganbayan division in favor of the state are vast tracts of land in Cagayan, Manila, Tagaytay, Batangas, and Rizal. In 2006, they had a total appraised value of P511.12 million.
Also awarded to the state are two Cessna planes that had been grounded since 1994, a sea vessel owned by Sierra Madre Wood Industries Incorporated, and various assets in the name of Alfonso D. Lim.
A Newsbreak report in 2005 says Lim Sr was a close friend of Marcos. He claimed ownership of Fuga Island, a 10,000-hectare property in Aparri, Cagayan, after World War II and also owned the defunct Pamplona Redwood Veneer Incorporated and Taggat Industries.
These logging companies operated in western Cagayan and the Cordilleras in the 1950s up to the time the government imposed a moratorium on commercial logging early in the 1990s.
A report from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) dated November 20, 1986 also stated that Lim simultaneously held, operated, and managed 7 separate timber concessions with a total area of 533,880 hectares.
With the “access areas” between Lim’s timber operations taken into account, the DENR report said he effectively held 633,800 hectares of forest land. Back then, the maximum allowable concession area for a timber license was only 100,000 hectares.
“For one Filipino out of 55 million to own, operate or in one form or another be financially interested in more than 600,000 hectares out of a total forest land of 14 million hectares is certainly unfair, unacceptable, and unconstitutional by any standard,” said the Sandiganbayan decision, quoting the DENR report.
“So influential was Lim Sr that he and Taggat and sister companies received certain timber-related benefits without the knowledge, let alone approval, of the MNR [Ministry of Natural Resources].”
While the Sandiganbayan ordered the return of all properties claimed by government, it dismissed the state’s claim for damages for lack of proof.
Former Minister Peña was absolved of any liability due to lack of evidence.
The 35-page ruling was penned by Associate Justice Napoleon Inoturan. Associate justices Teresita Diaz Baldos and Oscar Herrera Jr concurred. –Rappler.com
These include gold chains with sparkling gems, a huge circlet of rubies, and a necklace with pink and yellow diamonds
RARE FINDS. An official from the Presidential Commission on Good Government shows a diamond-studded piece of jewelry seized by the Philippine government from former first lady Imelda Marcos, at the Central Bank headquarters in Manila on November 24, 2015. Photo by NOEL CELIS/Agence France-Presse
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine authorities on Tuesday, November 24 showcased necklaces with diamonds the size of marbles and other jewels seized from the family of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in preparation for a possible multi-million-dollar auction.
White-gloved appraisers from Christie’s auction house examined about 600 pieces of jewelry, including gold chains covered with sparkling gems, a huge circlet of rubies, and a necklace dripping with pink and yellow diamonds at a special vault at the Philippine central bank (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas).
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), a body created to recover the millions stolen by Marcos and his allies, said that “due to the vast quantity of jewelry to be appraised, it will take at least 5 days,” for teams to go over it.
After the appraisal by Christie’s, a team from Sotheby’s will have their turn. Previous appraisals of the jewels in 1988 and 1991 estimated their worth at between $5 and $7 million, but the PCGC said this is no longer current.
“This (appraisal) will significantly open the way to determining a final resolution on the said assets, including the possible auction of the same,” the PCGG said in a statement, but added it was also open to putting the jewels on display.
It said a final decision required the approval of other agencies, and that Marcos’s widow, flamboyant former first lady Imelda Marcos, and her children, were still disputing the ownership of part of the collection before the Supreme Court.
In January 2014, the Sandiganbayan forfeited in favor of the Philippine government the third jewelry collection of the former first lady that was seized from her in 1986.
In a 33-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Efren de la Cruz, the court’s special first division forfeited what is known as the “Malacañang Jewelry Collection,” the last of Mrs Marcos’ 3 sets of collection covered by a court case and which have sat in a bank vault for decades.
Imelda Marcos’s lawyer Robert Sison said in a statement that ownership of the jewels was still subject to litigation.
He described the appraisal as a “very obvious political stunt.”
The long-hidden collection, seized in 3 batches after Marcos was overthrown in 1986, has been cited by critics as proof of how his family enriched itself while the nation sank deeper into poverty during his 20 years in power.
Imelda Marcos amassed a huge collection of jewels, valuable art works, and shoes even as other Marcos relatives and allies gained fortunes during the Marcos years, critics have said.
The PCGG has been charged with recovering this wealth which it dubs “ill-gotten.”
But since the late dictator died in exile in 1989, the family has made a political comeback with many members elected to prestigious positions.
The son of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, is running for vice president in next year’s elections, raising fears the family will regain its influence. – Rappler.com
MANILA, Philippines — The memories of the victims of disappearances which are being remembered on All Souls’ Day are being “mocked and dishonored” by Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the groups Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) and Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) said.
Families of disappeared continue to try to find justice for their loved ones. FILE PHOTO BY BERNARD TESTA
“Today, these poignant memories are mocked and dishonored by Bongbong who insists that the best administration was that of his father as he glosses over the existence of some 100,000 victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime,” they said in a statement.
FIND has documented 882 victims of enforced disappearance, and the number of undocumented cases is believed to be much higher.
“Survivors of enforced disappearance under martial law and the families of the disappeared are living witnesses to the rampant human rights violations during the dark years of the Marcos dictatorship. They can tell Bongbong Marcos to his face their harrowing experiences of repression and injustice,” the groups said.
At the same time, they urged the Aquino administration to initiate the “long overdue serious investigations” into the unresolved cases of disappearances to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Without tombs or columbaria to visit, the families of the disappeared belonging to FIND gather every year on All Souls’ Day at the Bantayog ng mga Desaparecido at Baclaran Church grounds to pray, offer flowers, light candles, and share memories of their missing loved ones.
Many of the victims were victims during the Martial Law regime ruled by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the senator’s father.
Senator Marcos is running for vice president in the May 2016 elections.
“Bongbong Marcos may not have directly perpetrated human rights violations, but he has no right to deny that these inhumane and cruel transgressions were committed during his father’s regime or to concede there were victims but at the same time dismiss them as unintended collateral damage,” FIND and AFAD said.
They said the senator “brazenly adds insult to injury” by disregarding the fact that it was his father’s administration that launched the infamous floating rate in 1970, which they said was a de facto devaluation of the peso that persists to this day.
The groups said this can be seen is the “ballooning of the country’s foreign debt whose principal and interest payments have gobbled up the government’s meager resources for basic social services; the occurrence of the highest inflation rates in Philippine economic history in 1976 and in 1983; and the rising number of Filipinos living below the poverty threshold.”
“It’s a shame for Senator Marcos who now aspires to be Vice President to flaunt his perfidious ignorance of Philippine history and the country’s political economy,” they said.
“Instead of trying hard to clear his father’s name, the noble thing for him to do is to apologize on his behalf, and help the victims and their families attain justice by supporting measures on accountability, truth recovery, reparations, and institutional reforms,” they added.
‘If there’s a denial of [atrocities], is there also a statement that there is no recognition that things have to be corrected down the line? And therefore is there a promise that there will be no repetition of the same?’
MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III said the family of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos should apologize for the atrocities committed during martial rule.
An apology would have been enough for the Filipino people, who are known to be forgiving, Aquino said at the presidential forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Tuesday, October 27.
Aquino was asked if he believed that the Marcoses have something to apologize for, in reference to the human rights abuses committed during the Marcos regime.
“I’ve said that time and again for many decades, yes….The start of a solution is the admission of the problem, of the crime that begets the problem,” said Aquino, whose father, the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, was among those detained upon the imposition of martial law.
He said the Marcos family members, some of whom have political careers, could have told the Filipino people: “We had this opportunity to turn this country great as our father promised – it didn’t happen. We apologize, we want to make amends.”
Aquino added: “That I think would have been very acceptable. We are a forgiving people as a general rule. But they have statements that there’s nothing to apologize for.”
He questioned the Marcoses’ denial of human rights abuses committed during martial rule, as he recounted the experience of not only his own father but former household employees as well.
His father was detained for 7 years after martial law was declared in 1972. Their former family driver and his wife, who both worked for them prior to the imposition of martial rule, were detained just because of their association with the Aquino family.
SHOULD THEY APOLOGIZE? Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr (2nd from R) beside his mother, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, at the launch of his vice presidential bid on October 5, 2015. Photo by Alecs Ongcal/Rappler
Denial, repetition
“If there’s a denial of what happened, is there also a statement that there is no recognition that things have to be corrected down the line? And therefore is there a promise that there will be no repetition of the same? That is our question,” Aquino said.
Marcos’ son, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, is running for vice president in the 2016 elections. The senator had repeatedly said he is lucky to be the “son of a president who has done so much” and believed there is nothing his family should apologize for.
“The law by itself is recognition. A government oppressed its people, that’s why there is need to compensate the people,” Aquino said. “It became its oppressor as opposed to its protector, and servant.”
What Marcos resurgence?
The President warned against the threat of “revisionists” seeking to sanitize the past. “The sad reality is even people like Hitler have their revisionists. There are some quarters who talk about the Holocaust as if it didn’t happen. So even that is not a certainty.”
Aquino, however, expressed hope that the cases of human rights abuses filed by the claimants under the law would be studied by future generations so they would not forget the country’s dark days of human rights abuses perpetrated during martial rule.
“Leave it for the future generations to study what transpired in the hope that it can be avoided down the line,” he said.
Responding to questions, Aquino downplayed the seeming “resurgence” of the Marcoses reflected in numerous posts in social media and the Internet glorifying the Marcos regime.
“There is a resurgence of support? No, no. I think the answer to that is very obvious. I don’t think so,” he said.
“I have faith in my bosses, the Filipino people. There was nothing that has caused me to change the faith that they are able to discern,” Aquino added.
Further proving his point, Aquino compared Marcos’ presidency to his term.
“I think what we should demonstrate or what should be highlighted is the fact that there is a period in time that contrary opinions were not encouraged. In our watch, contrary opinions are part and parcel and protected in the democratic space that we have managed to really strengthen within our watch. That is, I think, proof that the democratic system in this country works,” Aquino said.
In this infographic, we show the cost of war in Mindanao spanning the administrations of Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Erap Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Benigno Aquino III
MANILA, Philippines – Peace advocates and negotiators are putting up one last fight to have the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) passed before the Senate and House of Representatives adjourn their regular session on Saturday, October 10.
Professor Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, chief negotiator of the government in talks with rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said on Wednesday, October 7, that “the BBL should progress before the APEC summit” in November. (Ferrer: Pass Bangsamoro Basic Law before APEC, not December)
Joining Ferrer, Chief MILF peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal reiterated to media that his group is still committed to the peace process, but noted that the proposed law is “the only route towards peace” in Mindanao.
“Genuine peace with justice is within our grasp and let us not lose this golden opportunity so that long years of conflict will never happen again,” Iqbal said.
Wide public support for the peace talks between the Aquino government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) was eroded after a botched police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in January 2015. It sparked public outrage, casting doubt on the peace process including the proposed law required to implement the historic deal.
The peace agreement with the MILF is in the final phase of deliberations in Congress. However, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr and Senate President Franklin Drilon earlier said that they agreed to delay the passage of the contentious BBL until December 16, 2015.
In Rappler’s 4-minute animation, we captured the highlights of the 40-year-old conflict:
From 1970 to present, the war has claimed between 100,000 to 150,000 lives – 50% rebels, 30% government troops, and 20% civilians, according to government data.
The total economic loss sustained by Mindanao due to the conflict is pegged at about P640 billion ($13.9 million), according to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).
In figures and facts, we dissect the death toll and economic cost of the war under 6 presidencies: Ferdinand Marcos Sr, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Erap Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Benigno Aquino III.
Marcos
Following the Jabidah massacre, Muslim rebels led by Nur Misuari in the southern region of Mindanao formed the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in 1970.
President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 to contain what he described as growing Muslim and communist insurgencies. In 1976, Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi witnessed the signing of the Tripoli Agreement that provided a framework for autonomy in 13 provinces and 9 cities in Mindanao.
In 1978, one of the MNLF’s fiercest ideologues, Salamat Hashim, split from the MNLF and vowed to press ahead with the fight for an independent Islamic state. Salamat and Murad Ebrahim, another prominent rebel commander, formed the MILF in 1981.
Cory Aquino
After the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution that ousted Marcos, the Aquino administration launched peace talks with the MNLF.
In 1989, the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was signed into law.
Ramos
In 1996, Misuari, on behalf of the MNLF, signed a final peace agreement with the Ramos government.
That year, the MILF, which had long broken away from the MNLF, also entered into informal talks with the Ramos government. But the MILF peace project was put on the back burner, allowing the organization to recruit, establish huge camps in Central Mindanao and become the biggest Muslim rebel movement.
Estrada
Former president Joseph Estrada mobilized the entire armed forces to crush the MILF and bring down its seat of power in Camp Abubakar, Central Mindanao, in 2000.
Macapagal-Arroyo
Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resumed negotiations with the MILF, taking a bold step in crafting a draft agreement that triggered widespread opposition from lawmakers and various sectors and which the Supreme Court later on declared as unconstitutional.
In response, two MILF commanders led attacks across mainly Christian areas of Mindanao.
Aquino III
In October 2012, the Aquino administration and the MILF signed a peace agreement in Malacañang. It marked the first time the rebel group stepped into the country’s seat of power.
