Martial law in the Philippines: The horrors of the past
Forty two years on, people who tasted firsthand the horrors of martial law can still recall in detail the agony they went through.
Their stories have been told and retold countless times. Yet, they still feel their accounts have not been told enough.
For the 3,000 or so others, their stories are unfinished, like the brothers and sisters, sons and daughters and fathers and mothers of those who went missing and have never been found.
The scars were and are simply too deep to forget.
So when some Facebook account owners began to extoll on their walls the virtues and accomplishments of the dictatorship, those who lived during those dangerous times hit back by giving powerful narratives of their own.
Most media outlets ran the stories of the victims of the ‘darkest period’ of the country, some of them written more than three decades ago.
Like the Philippine Daily Inquirer which published interviews with notable former detainees of martial law, which was declared on September 21, 1972.
Interaksyon, the online publication of TV5, continued with its tradition of reposting accounts of victims while adding more interviews every time the anniversary of the declaration of martial law comes near.
Never again. Present day activists vow to resist a return to dictatorship.Pic by Edwin Espejo
Gouged, electrified, rendered
Lawsuits began to pile up against the Marcos dictatorship after the EDSA Revolt in 1986 that culminated in the regime’s ouster.
In 1992, after initial setbacks, victims of the human rights violations under martial rule won a class suit against the estate of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
A jury in the case heard by Federal District Judge Manuel Real of Hawaii found Marcos personally liable for the rape, torture, disappearance and murder of thousands of activists and critics of martial law.
Noted script and screen writer Ricky Lee, in an article that appeared in the Inquirer, said he was arrested and detained three times under martial law. He was humiliated to the point he slashed his wrist in an attempt at suicide.
One suspected member of the communist underground movement was said to have his skull opened, brains emptied and stuffed with his own clothes.
Hilda Narciso, who was arrested in Davao City in a raid that resulted into the death of Edgar Jopson, recalled how she was repeatedly raped and her genitals burned with cigarettes.
Repugnant to the senses
For the people behind Bantayog ng Bayani, they said they have barely scratched the wide expanse of blood-soaked ground where more than 10,000 suffered under the brutal regime.
Bantayog put up a granite wall where the names of martyrs of martial law are enshrined.
As of September 22, they have only inscribed 229 names.
The Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Diktadurya at Amnestiya (Selda) still continues to exist even though its name suggests it should have been deactivated after the strongman was ousted in a popular revolt in 1986.
But because many have not been given justice, they continue to be relevant.
When victims in the twilight of their years were made to line up under the sweltering heat to get their ‘token’ compensation after a US Court awarded them payments for their ordeals under martial law, Selda felt shame and at the same time vindicated that it is here to stay.
It is repulsive for many that the dictator’s son and namesake Sen. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos could someday become president himself, appearing in memes and proclaiming that the best years of the Philippines were under his father’s dictatorial watch.
Forty two years after martial law was declared no one has been convicted for human rights abuses during the 14 years of military rule.
Meanwhile, the Marcoses have been politically rehabilitated with Imelda, the strongman’s wife, now a member of Philippine Congress while daughter Imee is governor in the late strongman’s home province of Ilocos Norte. Bongbong of course is a member of the Philippine Senate.
Some may be too young to fully comprehend the monstrosity of martial law and the dictatorship.
But for the many who lived through the nightmare, the horrors are too horrendous to forget.
One wishes nobody will go through such a terrible ordeal again.
