[Philippine's human rights violations] Martial Law Diaries, and other papers [corruption in the Philippines] #3/218

PREFACE

There are compelling reasons why I decided to publish the contents of a diary that I have kept to myself for the last thirty years. Among these are the following disturbing observations that I gathered in recent public forums, symposiums and assemblies:

With certain exceptions, many members of the “First Quarter Storm” generation now suffer from some form of amnesia on the subject of the Marcos martial law regime. “Acute amnesia” applies to former FQS activists who are now active collaborators of the “decadent” system and establishment they struggled against once upon a time. “Mild amnesia” refers to those who believe that the decadent social order they used to despise has metamorphosed to a point where reforms,instead of revolutionary changes,are sufficient to effect meaningful changes.

• Today’s younger generation hardly knows anything about the Marcos dictatorship and what really happened during the period of martial rule. While many of them are now active in people’s organizations, the majority remains apolitical and unconcerned with an alarming revival of excesses and abuses of the “New Society” that was supposed to have disappeared with the downfall of the “conjugal dictatorship.”

• Over a period of seventeen years since the February ’86 EDS A “people power” uprising, the 9,539 class suit victims of martial law atrocities have yet to receive justice and restitution despite a verdict of the Hawaii Federal District Court holding Ferdinand Marcos and his regime liable for “crimes against humanity” from 1972 to 1986. ¹wealth in their bid for political power at the highest level of the state hierarchy through the 2004 elections.

• Also because of public amnesia and apathy, a bloc of politicians from Ilocos region is now proposing with temerity that Ferdinand Marcos’ birthday on September 11 be declared an official holiday.

These are more than enough reasons to remind the victims of amnesia and the younger generation that once upon a time there was a martial law regime that snuffed out the flame of freedom, civil liberties and basic human rights of the Filipino people. It was a long dark night of uncertainty and insecurity; arbitrary arrest and detention; torture, “salvaging” and involuntary disappearance; impoverishment and misery; suffering and agony of a terrorized people. While the victims have yet to receive justice, the oppressors and culprits are still very much around and planning a comeback and revival of the long dark night of terror.

“Martial Law Diary” is not a personal diary in the conventional sense. Except for some entries of a personal nature, almost all its pages are devoted to accounts, observations and comments on significant happenings during the early and critical stage of martial rule.

There are also entries on the people’s struggle in other countries. This is because the struggle of the Filipino people against domestic fascism and US imperialism during this critical period was not an isolated case but part of a worldwide people’s struggle for national liberation, economic emancipation and self-determination.

This diary may therefore be regarded as a source reference for political and social education and enlightenment. It covers the critical period of 1973 and part of 1974 when the dictatorship exercised absolute power over the life and survival of every Filipino. These were the days when henchmen and agents of the regime had license to kill and commit the most heinous crimes against anybody tagged as an “enemy of the state.”

There were then no human rights organizations in the country. Under conditions of martial law the term “human rights” was considered subversive and inimical to the regime.

It was a period of betrayal of the people by an armed forces that allowed itself to be used as an oppressive instrument of the dictatorship to intimidate, threaten and instill fear among the people with impunity. A moment of history when most Filipinos behaved like sheep except those who had the courage to fight for principles and a cause.

“Other papers” refer to the author’s collection of writings on issues of national significance from pre-martial law days to the present. These papers are in the form of articles, commentaries and “letters to the editor,” most of which have been published in the press.

Some readers may question my bias against the dictatorship and the New Society and ask, “Was there nothing good that Marcos did for the nation?” I believe that whatever “good” that Marcos did during his dictatorship was not out of altruism but for narrow and despicable self-serving ends. Whatever merits other people may see in the “laudable” achievements of the dictatorship cannot compensate for the gross injustice, ruthlessness, viciousness and inhumanity that he imposed and inflicted on the Filipino people with impunity over a period of fourteen years.