49 years after Martial Law in the Philippines: Why many Filipinos choose not to forget

IT WAS 49 YEARS AGO TODAY: Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, declared Proclamation No. 1081 on September 23, 1972, placing the Philippines under “Martial Law”. It was a grim period marked by arrests, forced disappearances, torture, abuse of power, blithe disregard for human rights, summary executions — and systematic theft. It marked one of the darkest moments in Philippine history. Former President Ferdinand Marcos having a meeting with the military officials during Martial Law.

CONFUSION: Some sources say Marcos, the republic’s 10th president, signed the proclamation on September 17 or on September 22 — but, in either case, the document itself was dated September 21, 1972. It was a well-thought out plan with flawless execution, and pushed the Asian country and its people from the depths of despair to the heights of defiance. Marcos with his top general, Fabian Ver (his cousin and childhood friend). "Batas Militar" in the caption is Filipino for "Military Rule'". Marcos died in 1989 (at age 72); Ver died in 1998 (at age 78). [Source: https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/ https://bit.ly/3tVhPnm]

SEPTEMBER 23, 1972, AT 7:15 PM: Officially, Marcos announced he had placed the entirety Philippine archipelago under “martial law” on this date, at this time. It marked the beginning of a 14-year era of one-man rule, after having already ruled for 8 years (since 1965). To his critics, it was a lame excuse to perpetuate himself in power.

ARRESTS, MEDIA SHUTDOWNS: Most of his opponents — among them Senators, newsmen, editors, labour leaders and young anti-Marcos activists — were arrested. The phone company (PLDT), the electric company (Meralco) were cordoned off. News organisations were shut down, including: 7 English dailies, 4 Chinese dailies, 1 Spanish Daily, 3 Filipino dailies, 1 Filipino-English daily; 66 community papers; 11 English weekly magazines, 7 TV stations, and 292 radio stations. Source: https://twitter.com/mlq3/status/1440842240381710343?s=20

EVENTS THAT LED TO MARTIAL LAW DECLARATION: The 1935 Philippine Constitution allowed a Philippine president only two terms of up to 8 years — or 4 years each. Marcos' second term was due to end in 1973. He jumped the gun and declared Martial Law a year earlier. And he had better ideas: In 1973, a year after declaring military rule, he abolished the 1935 Constitution. His power became absolute. Many of his critics, though, called it a Mickey Mouse constitution. Photo shows Marcos with General Fabian Ver.

SENATE SHUT DOWN: After Marcos declared the 1973 Constitution, ratified and effective by virtue of the Citizens’ Assemblies on January 10-15, he ordered Congress to be padlocked. The 7th Congress had been set to open its second regular session on January 22. The photo shows (from left) Senators Doy Laurel, Eva Estrada Kalaw, Ramon Mitra, Jose W. Diokno and Jovito Salonga posing in front of the Senate session hall which had been padlocked — a veritable symbol of power now at the hands of one man. They were all arrested, jailed.

21-YEAR RULE: As a result, Marcos ruled the Asian country for 21 years, instead of the constitutional limit of eight. Marcos is the first — and only — Philippine chief executive ever to be re-elected. He ruled more than twice the allowed limit under the 1935 charter. Photo shows Marcos with his wife Imelda. Critics termed their regime a "conjugal dictatorship".

LEGENDARY ENIGMA: Ferdinand Marcos was a legendary enigma. He remains one of the most divisive figures in the Asian country. Born on September 11, 1917 in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, Ferdinand was a sharp shooter. When he was a young man, a local politician Julio Nalundasan defeated Mariano Marcos, Ferdinand’s father, for the second time for the office of representative for the second district of Ilocos Norte in 1935. On the night of September 20, 1935, Nalundasan was killed by a sniper at his hometown, while brushing his teeth.

SUSPECT: The immediate suspects were Ferdinand, a member of the University of the Philippines (UP) rifle team, his father Mariano, his brother Pio and his brother-in-law Quirino Lizardo. The rifle assigned to Ferdinand in the UP was in a gun rack but another rifle, that of team captain, was missing.

INDICTED: In 1936, Marcos was indicted by a district court, and sentenced to life. While in jail, Marcos was allowed to take the 1939 Bar examinations, receiving 92.35%, highest in his batch. Florenz Regalado holds the record of scoring the highest grade in the 1954 Philippine Bar Examinations to date with a mark of 96.70%, followed by José I. Quintos (96.33% in 1905).

HIS OWN LAWYER: Marcos was indicted by the lower court. He appealed the case, and defended himself arguing for his innocence before the Supreme Court on account of the clarity of his mind and conscience that allowed him top the previous year’s bar exams (1939). The Supreme Court took Marcos’ side, overturning the lower court’s ruling. Justice Jose P. Laurel (who later became president), was the ponente (write of the decision), and was said to have identified with Marcos. In his younger days, Laurel would have been also convicted of homicide if not for the intervention of George Malcolm, then SC Justice.

ACQUITTED: On October 20, 1940, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision, thus acquitting young Ferdinand and his uncle Quirino Lizardo of the charge of murder of Nalundasan. The circumstances of the crime were noted to have been “bizarre." Marcos defended himself in that case. This is a scene from the film, "Iginuhit ng Tadhana: The Ferdinand E. Marcos Story" (1965), with Marcos portrayed by actor Luis Gonzalez, delivering his defence oratory.

‘GOLDEN BOY, GOLDEN AGE’. Marcos started is political career in 1949, when he was elected to the Philippines House of Representatives. He claimed to have been the "most decorated war hero in the Philippines." A number of his claims have been found to be fabricated. In 1959, he was elected Senator and from 1963 to 1965, served as Senate president. In 1965, he broke ranks with the Liberal Party after failing to win the party’s nomination and ran as the candidate of the Nationalist Party. After a bitter and decisive campaign, he was elected president. And then re-elected in 1969. For six years from 1965 to 1969, the Philippines’ GDP grew between 5.27 percent to 5.43 percent. In 1973 and 1976, GDP hit 8.92% and 8.81%, respectively. Some point to this period as the “golden age” of the Philippines.

BALANCE-OF-PAYMENTS CRISIS: A balance of payments (BOP) crisis, however, started emerging from as early as 1969. Opposition groups began to form — with "moderate" groups calling for political reform and "radical" groups who espoused a more radical-Left ideology. Then there was the Moro rebellion. Marcos responded to all groups with military force. A country’s BOP is the difference between money flowing into the country and money flow out during a specific period. Photo shows the Philippine central bank building pn Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

A FARCE: Many called the 1973 constitution and Marcos’ extended rule a farce. His ability to pass laws on his own alongside a legislative assembly gave Marcos and his family a veneer of ownership of the entire country, with the Malacanang Palace as their throne. Marcos ruled with iron fist. Those who called out the abuses and disregard for human rights of the regime, many of them journalists, professionals, academics, students — ended up in jail or dead.

DEBT-DRIVEN: A debt-driven growth, and a confluence of factors — restiveness in the military, communist and Moro rebellions and Marcos’ own rapacity (he built a corruption-tainted nuclear power plant that did not produce a single Watt of power) —became a deadly cocktail that marked Marcos’ extended rule.

SOCIAL UNREST: Marcos' ambition to perpetuate himself in power was clear years before he declared Martial Law. His second term was marred by social unrest, due to debt-driven growth. For the next 10 years from his 1972 ML declaration, both the communists and Moro separatists grew in strength.

SWISS RETURN MARCOS LOOT: As economies of neighbours grew, the Philippine economy nosedived. Initially, foreign loans produced short-term growth. Later, it emerged that the infrastructure buildup (bridges, signature buildings) was used as a smokescreen for large-scale pillage of public funds. In 1999, a Swiss court transferred $570 million in frozen Marcos deposits to the Philippines National Bank, which held it in an escrow account pending a final decision. 

MOMENTS OF DISQUIET: Marcos' rule drew much resentment from young people and bred a massive protest movement. The activist (fifth from left) with the banner of the "Malayang Pagkakaisa ng Kabataang Pilipino" (MPKP, Free Union of Young Filipinos), is Leonor "Liling" Magtolis-Briones, now the Education Secretary of President Rodrigo Duterte. By the time he was deposed in a civilian-backed military-coup in February 1986 — Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii — the country stared at more than $28 billion in external debt. An inflation calculator states that $28 billion in 1983 is equivalent to $69.89 billion (Php3.516 trillion pesos) today.

SOLID NORTH BROKEN. Photo shows General Fidel Ramos (left, who later became president), an Ilocano and a cousin of Marcos, and Juan Ponce Enrile, also an Ilocano and a former defence minister of Marcos, announcing their withdral of support for Marcos in 1986. The veneer of solidity among the ruling tribe in the Philippines was broken.

11,103 DOCUMENTED VICTIMS: At least 11,103 had been documented to fall victims to rights violations ranging from murder, incarceration to torture. Months after Marcos the dictator was deposed, evidence emerged that along beneath the murder and abuse of power was a systematic theft of public coffers whisked away by his family and some of his closest lieutenants, who had found their way to the Swiss Banks.

ONE FORGOTTEN INCIDENT: In August 1977, Achie Trajajo, a courageous student of Mapua Institute of University, stood up in an open forum to question the eldest daughter of the late dictator, Imee (now Senator), on her capability to lead the youth. Trajano was last seen being escorted by soldiers out of the forum. On September 2, 1977, Trajano’s lifeless body was found in the streets of Manila, breaing marks of torture. On March 20, 1986, Agapita Trajano filed her complaint in the US District Court for the District of Hawaii. The complaint sought damages on behalf of the estate of Archimedes Trajano for false imprisonment, kidnapping, wrongful death, and a deprivation of rights, and on behalf of Trajano's mother for emotional distress.

TECHNICALITY: Archie Trajano's body bore torture marks. Imee Marcos fought the case and moved the court to set aside entry of default on the ground of insufficiency of evidence. The court denied her motion and concluded that the fundamental human rights constitutes a tort in violation of the law of nations. It awarded damages to the Trajano estate $4.16 million and attorneys' fees pursuant to Philippine law. When the heir tried to have the award enforced in the Philippines, Trajano’s family lost by a technicality. Many of the other cases against the Marcoses were lost due to technicality. The link to the US court ruling. https://bit.ly/39xt4ZY

NEMESIS ASSASSINATED: In 1983, Marcos’ biggest political rival of the day, Benigno Aquino Jr, was assassinated. The economy tanked. In 1984 and 1985, GDP contracted to minus 7.32% and minus 7.04%, respectively.

COUNTRY’S BRAINS AND YOUTH WASTED BY REBELLION: Among the people who rebelled against Marcos’s rule were senior legislators, intellectuals, medical doctors (including young oncologist Dr Juan Escandor), professionals. Military men, including Victor Corpus, an army officer, joined the communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels. The Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), formed by junior military officers, took an entire bloc of the military who later turned against Marcos. Shown together with the New People’s Army (NPA) founder Bernabe Buscayno and Victor Corpus (the AFP lieutenant who made headlines when he defected to the NPA and raided the armory of the Philippine Military Academy on December 29, 1970) is Ninoy, bowing his head and looking somber after the military tribunal sentenced all three men to death by firing squad on November 25, 1977.

END OF THE ROAD: Under Marcos, the military and defence establishments were firmly controlled by his own tribesmen, the Ilocanos. But big cracks did emerge: several of Marcos’ own generals, including his cousin Fidel V Ramos, then the military’s No. 2, launched a coup. Juan Ponce Enrile (centre), Marcos’ defence minister and also an Ilocano, joined the rebellion. Enrile was among the key figures during the 1986 EDSA “People Power” Revolution that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Philstar.com/File Photo

‘PILLAGER’: Today, many Youtube videos and social media posts extoll the “greatness” of Marcos, glossing over a more balanced narrative. Lee Kuan Yew, founding father of Singapore and sort-of-a-friend of Marcos (Lee allowed some of Marcos’ children and grandchildren temporary refuge in Singapore), later described his friend as a “pillager” (aka: looter, plunderer). “Only in the Philippines,” Yew wrote bluntly in his memoir, “could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics…”

PLUNDERER: The Marcos dynasty’s attempt to rule forever effectively ended on February 24, 1986 following a civilian-backed military revolt led by the junior officers. Marcos and his family fled to Hawaii, where he died of a heart attack three years later, on September 29, 1989. His body had been stored in Hawaii in an air-conditioned crypt. Nearly four years after his death in exile, on September 7, 1993, the body of Marcos was returned to the Philippines and was met by a lavish welcome by thousands of supporters.

‘I AM A FILIPINO’: A chartered Continental Airlines Boeing 727 brought his body back to Laoag. The jet touched down, women in the crowd wept. A horn was sounded in a wailing tone as part of a ritual announcing death. It was President Fidel V. Ramos’ (left) decision to allow the body to be returned. The jet bore an image of Marcos and the words “I am a Filipino” on the fuselage. Photo shows Marcos' children, Senator Maria Imelda "Imee" Marcos and Ferdinand Jr., who was narrowly defeated when he ran for Vice President in 2016.

NOT THE END OF MARCOS. It’s not the end of the story of this enigmatic man. Imelda, Marcos widow, kept her husband’s remains on display in the mausoleum until the government yielded to her demand for a burial in the National Heroes’ Cemetery in Manila. There was uncertainty as to whether the contents of a glass-topped coffin at the museum really were his mortal remains or simply a wax replica. On November 18, 2016, upon the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’ remains were brought to the Libingan ng mga Bayani (literally "Cemetery of (the) Heroes') in Fort Bonifacio, Metro Manila, Philippines.

A COUNTRY DEEPLY DIVIDED. 49 years after Martial Law, and 35 years after the dictator was deposed, the revival of Marcos political fortures has exposed deep divisions in the Philippines. Two of Marcos' children, Maria Imelda (“Imee”) and Ferdinand Junior (“Bongbong”, also known in social media as BBM), are now firmly back in politics. Imee is a Senator, while BBM narrowly lost in the 2016 vice presidential race. Evidence that the “Solid North" vote in the northern Ilocos region of Luzon sways any national contest. Since that fateful night of September 20, 1935, when Nalundasan was felled by a sniper’s bullet, the Marcos family has turned Ilocos into their tribal stronghold, a springboard from which to influence the rest of the country's 7,640 islands. While forgiveness is in order, many choose not to forget. Photo shows thousands of anti-Marcos activists carrying placards and a mock coffin protest the burial of Marcos in the heroes' cemetery.