Martial law at 50
Come Sept. 21, the nation will be reminded that it was on that day, 50 years ago, when Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared/imposed martial law all over the country. That day signified the beginning of a 14-year regime of tyranny amidst pomp and pageantry, horrific human rights violations, dissembling, deceit and plunder – until the Marcos dictatorship was ousted in a joyful popular uprising in February 1986.
It would be interesting to watch how the Marcos Jr. administration would officially observe the occasion.
Last Thursday, 25 individuals and 25 progressive cause-oriented organizations – a total of 50 co-convenors – launched a movement, simply called ML50, with multimedia coverage at the Quezon City Sports Club. In a unity statement read at the event, they stated:
“We are launching ML50 [as] a public information, education and cultural movement and nationwide network of various groups and individuals committed to correctly observing the 50th anniversary of martial law and countering all forms of historical distortions and negative historical revisionism.”
“With the rallying calls #Never Again, #Never Forget and #Tuloy ang Laban,” the statement says, “we are committed to turn the tide of disinformation that repackages the Marcos dictatorship as we boldly commemorate the Filipino people’s heroic resistance against authoritarianism.” A truly challenging task, but everyone who came to the launching affirmed their commitment to push onward.
The co-convenors premised the launching of ML50 on some of the factors that they believe facilitated the restoration of the Marcos family to power, citing the following:
• The restoration “benefitted hugely from electoral fraud, attacks on civil liberties and the conspiracy of the vested interests of traditional politicians;”
• It was made possible by the “consistent denial of the gross human rights violations and world-class plunder committed by the Marcos dictatorship” and
• “Marcos Jr.’s counterfeit claims and outright lies gained traction with the persistent mass poverty and elitist and patronage politics that have traditionally drowned out the voices of the impoverished masses.”
Asserting that the Marcos years in power were never a golden age, but a period of suffering for the majority of the Filipinos, the unity statement declares:
“Thus, marking the 50th anniversary of martial law by exposing what it actually was and by underscoring its bitter lessons has become more urgent and necessary, given the continuing massive disinformation campaigns and organized historical distortion that are happening today under a government imprimatur.”
In conclusion, the statement pledges: “We stand united in ML50 not only to assert the factual historical truths about the nation’s past but also to uphold the democratic and patriotic aspirations of the Filipino people now and in the future.”
At the launching, movie and stage director Joel Lamangan, one of the coconvenors, expressed the sentiment of the survivors of torture and repeated military detention without charges under martial law. He said:
“I have grown old in this struggle, but we have no intention of stopping now. Even if my knees wobble and my eyesight is failing.”
Other martial law survivors, more senior in age than Lamangan, participated in the launching event (including myself, as a co-convenor). The renowned activist Benedictine nun, Mo. Mary John Mananzan, in her 80s, and the former military officer and scholar Dante Simbulan Sr. still sharp in his early 90s, proved that advanced age continues to inspire, as they delivered solidarity messages via online video.
Then there were former Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tanada, grandson of Sen. Lorenzo M. Tanada, and retired Commission on Human Rights member Gwendolyn Pimentel Gana, daughter of former Senate president Aquilino Pimentel Jr. Both pledged to carry forward their forebears’ courageous fight against the Marcos dictatorship.
Specifically, Lamangan addressed fellow artists, enjoining them “not to join the ranks of those who help cover up the truth.” Instead, he added, “let us help the youth to understand what really happened” under the Marcos prolonged authoritarian rule.
Asked by a reporter what he thought of a movie, titled “Maid in Malacanang” (about the last 72 hours of the Marcos family in the presidential palace before they were rescued by American helicopters), Lamangan indicated his “disgust.” But he would watch the film, he promised, to see how its director, Darryl Yap, handled the film’s subject.
Sen. Imee Marcos is reportedly the chief consultant for the film. She has been quoted in press reports as saying about the film in an online press conference: “We’re just telling the story we know, from our point of view… We’re not revising anything. We’re simply explaining the happenings in our final three days in (Malacañang).”
Somewhat ominously, however, she added: “Unfortunately, there would have to be some truths told and some lies debunked, finally.”
Imee’s claiming that the film tells a story from the Marcoses’ point of view and “finally” debunks some lies, challenges ML50 to marshal the facts of history and really exercise their critical faculties. And as Lamangan stressed, the urgent need is to come up with new films on the martial law events “from the point of view of the people.”
In this regard, it’s interesting to mull over what Lamangan’s fellow awardwinning actor-director Bart Guingona said when asked by Inquirer to comment on the film.
“They should approach it as a piece of trash,” Guingona remarked. “The need to saturate all media… with lies is a tactic. It’s called fire-hosing. If you hear a lie often enough you begin to believe it’s true, or at least you begin to doubt your old certainties.”
Instead of playing into (the Marcoses’) hands, “trying to debunk their lies, although that too has its uses,” Guingona counseled: “We need to continue telling stories that purvey the truth. We need to recruit our art[s] and artists in the defense of truth [which ML50 vows to do, among others].” He emphasized, “But because the arts have always reached only niche markets, we need to play where the firehose plays, social media.”