With accounts from survivors to our today’s youth, read on to see the common ground that these Filipinos have no matter their differences in age, experience, and background.

 

Judy M. Taguiwalo, 70 

social worker, social activist, professorial lecturer and the former DSWD Secretary.

[They say Martial Law was good, good for whom? That’s always the question. Good for whom we are talking about?  When you say Martial Law, it is not for the majority, because it is for the minority imposing their will on the majority.]

 

Detained twice during the Martial Law in Marcos’ regime, Ms. Taguiwalo shared in a Zoom meeting interview with The Benildean lessons, similarities, and differences of her experience of Martial Law and living in the current time, especially with the pandemic at large. 

 

In a detailed account of her experience being detained during Martial Law, she posted on her Facebook page that part of the torture she endured was being stripped naked before being sat down on ice; other ways of torture that the people she was with also included electrocution, having their heads forced into a toilet with excretion, as well as sexual molestation for women. The second time that she was detained, she was four months pregnant and gave birth in Camp Crame during June 1984.

 

Nevertheless, her will to live and stand firm was prevalent. Due to the assassination of Sen. Ninoy Aquino, this was also the time where she was sure that “the second detention was already the matter of time that dictatorship would be ousted—and it did. “It was really March 1, 1986, several days after the Marcoses fled to Hawaii.” 

 

Educator Taguiwalo highlights that its key similarities are massive human rights violation—the extreme power of the person sitting in Malacanang—the repression of the media, emergence of cronyism, and even the accumulation of foreign debt, “selling our country; foreign debt, that’s another similarity, so Marcos really borrowed a lot of money during the Martial Law period and we’re still paying for it. And now we’re seeing an exponential increase in the foreign debt.”

 

Far from the silver lining, then Martial Law can be compared in today’s situation as “we seem to see Martial Law without the ‘Martial Law declaration’, she said, while striving for “genuine democracy.” Moreover, the number of Extrajudicial Killings (EJK) has increased to at least 7,000 victims in comparison to the 3,000 recorded during the Martial Law in the 1970s. The rule of military personnel was also invisible during that time, but now, they are clearly seen as they are being placed on top—being heads in the health sector and social welfare departments instead of doctors and social workers.

 

From a myriad accounts of violence and lost lives, people have “overcome this kind of intimidation, threat, and terror; [however] we would stand up to overthrow it; and the creativity was boundless.”  Meanwhile, arts are used to depict a form of protest ranging from theatre plays, movies, and fashion shows, as well as outcries from different organizations. 

 

EDSA People Power 1 was powerful then as people joined together to oust a dictator despite the possibility of death, but she acknowledges that it is hard to do that right now especially with the risk of health for citizens to go out and protest, but even so, Ms. Taguiwalo has said, “the pandemic has not removed us from our rights and the right to protest our right to register our stand on issues that are inimical to the people—that right remains.” 

 

With that, she stood firm that implementing September 11 as an official holiday for Ferdinand Marcos would be adding ”insult to the injury already.” She pegged it as “a bipolar government; I mean it is a real physical and mental illness but this one is a different kind, it is an illness that should not be perpetrated against poor people,” when it would be passed by the same government who claimed that the dictatorship of Martial Law violated human rights then.

 

For her, Martial Law is not necessary, but the collective need for people to stand together is needed—but this can happen without Martial Law. “Our lesson from the Martial Law and EDSA People Power 1 is ‘Tama na, palitan na’ is not enough,” she stated, but rather a systematic reform should be the one to take place. 

 

Moreover, being the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary had allowed Ms. Taguiwalo to witness how political dynasties work, “Only the rich or those supported by the rich can afford advertising, the money to buy watchers, the money to buy votes—it’s a system reform that we need.” To achieve these, she believes that the government must focus on general industrialization of the local market, agriculture, and social welfare.

 

Even with the tough situation brought by the quarantine protocols, she said that it was much worse during the Spanish colonial period, citing a popular Filipino phrase, “Kung gusto, may paraan; kung ayaw, may dahilan.” On what people can do to contribute more even from their own homes, she suggested, “you're talking to survivors and you're being critical. I think that is the most important thing for people like you: not to accept the dogma, the lies that they share everyday or every Monday late night show, but [rather] to really deconstruct it, analyze it, it has to be evidence-based.” Ms. Taguiwalo also urged everyone to talk to people, and to attend seminars conducted by not just students, but farmers’ organizations, women’s organizations, and indigenous people’s organizations, and to see what they have to say about Martial Law. 

 

The Filipino people should assert the Philippine sovereignty, especially their government. She points out that the struggle is historical revisionism wherein Martial Law is painted as the “golden age, making the tyrants like a hero, making the crimes as nonexistent,” despite the larger volume of sources that state otherwise. 

 

Urging the youth to be educated and take a stand for their rights even through observing the trendy Korean Dramas that tell the truth of students fighting the dictatorship in their own country. Everyone must be able to use their “privilege” to do so, she stated that they should always ask themselves, “‘Para kanino tayo? Para kanino ka?”’ and I hope that the answer would be katulad ng ibang mga kabataan [mula sa iba’t ibang] panahon sa Pilipinas, sa ibang bansa, at ngayon ay ‘para ako sa bayan at para ako sa mamamayan.’”

 

At the end of the interview, Ms. Taguiwalo was excited to share a quote from a recent book, “What Can I Do?: My Path from Climate Despair to Action” by Jane Fonda, that she had received from a former student: “When I was young, I thought activism was a sprint, and I worked around the clock, hoping for quick change. When I was older, I learned activism is a marathon, and I learned to pace myself. At eighty-two, I realize it is neither a sprint nor marathon, it is a relay race. The most important thing we adults can do now is join and support the next generation of climate activists ready to lead the movement. It is to them that I dedicate this book.” 

 

Melanie Lago, 63

Branch Head of Sales at Agency-Manulife Philippines, former campus journalist

[Know your history and learn from it!  It has been 34 years since we booted out Marcos, and still, his shadow looms over us.  The problem with Filipinos is we have short memories.  We are too forgiving of wrong that has been done to us as a people.]

 

Being a 15-year-old when Martial Law was declared, Ms. Lago said that she did not really “[experience] any abuse on my person; any intimidation or threat to my family prior to or after [Martial Law] was declared. We were a middle class family, absorbed with our own personal struggles to keep our family and home together, and keep up our middle class status.” 

 

In a written interview with The Benildean, she laid down the details of when the law was declared, “I had no idea what the impact of [Martial Law] could be on the country, nor to myself, as a sheltered teenager from a convent school. I remember that morning of Sept. 21, classes were suspended, Francisco Tatad was on TV reading the statement about what ML was all about. I looked out my window, half expecting to see tanks and military men rolling down the streets. But there were none. I was more worried about what the curfew would do to my social life, than I was about curtailment of freedom or military rule.” Moreover, she only started to become more socially aware when she entered college in St. Scholastica’s College with classes on Philippine History and Governance, Theology, Women Studies, and more that opened her eyes to the struggles of the country.

 

When asked about how the Marcos and the Duterte administrations differ and relate to each other, she said, “Greed and corruption never seem to go out of style.  If the people are not vigilant, it will remain systemic […] I have always maintained that there is an unholy alliance between the poor and the politicians.  Both have to keep themselves in status quo, so that the poor will always be the beneficiary of all the government projects done by the politicians,” emphasizing that poverty has always been the main problem in the Philippines.

 

When relating the two strongmen, she said, “at least Marcos was a genius who made attempts to project a progressive nation to the world. It doesn’t excuse him from his dastardly deeds though. Duterte is just a thug whose style of running a nation is pang-barangay. Plus, he has dastardly deeds too.”

 

The former campus journalist also saw that the Marcos family projected an ideal picture, but despite the good optics, she said that was just that, “maganda sila. ‘Wag lang lagyan ng magnifying glass.” Ms. Lago mentioned that Martial Law was necessary only in the minds of Marcos and “his cronies” in attempt to grant him a lifetime ruling—which is not different from Duterte and “his minions” who keep painting and pushing another Martial Law as a solution for traffic, handling the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. She, in contrast, believes that it “is really just an insidious ploy to sneak [Martial Law] past us.”

 

In answering the question of whether Martial Law is a bad law on its own or only under a bad leader, she stated that the grounds for implementing such law is in case of rebellion, invasion or when public safety requires it. However, akin to the Marcos reign, a “President can conjure circumstances and situations that would make it seem as if the nation was in a state of rebellion or public unrest.  Hence the need for [Martial Law] “This is bared in the “correct” history books, says Ms. Lago. With that being said, she told The Benildean that the proposal for September 11 to be a holiday for Ferdinand Marcos should not have even been proposed.

 

According to her, Filipinos should expect a leader who is “strict and steeped in values, with only the benefit of the majority in mind.  Someone who can quell corruption and not play partisan politics,” someone who is similar to current Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father Lee Kuan Yew; although she does acknowledge that their government is parliamentary and differs from the Philippines.”

 

In conclusion to the interview, she urged the youth to know and learn from their history. In her experience as a young woman, what helped her in uncovering the truth was conducting a “Root Analysis” as taught by her professors. 

 

“You took a situation, and actually drew a diagram asking WHY and WHERE this situation emanated from. Never take things at face value. Journalists should always be “suspicious.” They should be able to draw links among the characters in government, and events."

Uriel Alfonso Maderazo, 16

BS-HRIM student, Chairperson of League of the Filipino Students-CSB 

[They [Marcos and Duterte] are NOT heroes! Not when millions of innocent Filipino lives and their rights have been compromised by those in power under these administrations.]

 

By stating that a government needs to put its people as the top priority, Maderazo, a student and member of a student mass organization emphasizes that “the government should first and foremost serve the people who deserve a government that tackles and gives equal treatment and opportunities to its citizens regardless of socioeconomic and geopolitical status.” 

 

In another written interview with The Benildean, Maderazo further discussed the comparison between Marcos’ Martial Law and Pres. Duterte’s behavior during his time in office. 

 

“Marcos’ regime is essentially similar to the current regime of Duterte by its reliance on excess self-gratifying exercises and monopolization of power,“ claiming that both of these men’s administrations tend to focus on the law and order of the state which has caused the division and the bloodshed of our countrymen. “The laws they have created require the imposition of military control over the state in its normal civil functions, which has caused nothing but the government’s ability to freely abuse the power bestowed upon them by the people.” This is further exemplifying that this is a clear manifestation of the countless ways the government has taken advantage of their power to use for their personal agendas.

 

When asked about the positive effects of Martial law in both Marcos’ and Duterte’s governance, they can only think of a few things, one of which is the rise of the democratic movement and the presence of the militant struggle by adding, “people became aware and saw how democracy was essentially in shambles under Marcos’ reign and it encouraged people to evaluate the current system in place.” 

 

Moreover, they used the Martial Law in Mindanao that is currently happening in Duterte’s regime as an example of how both administrations of Duterte and Marcos mirror each other as Pres. Duterte keeps on bending the laws just to serve his own agendas. Maderazo also cited that “innocent lives of communities such as the Lumads in Marawi have been violated and these people have been deprived of their rights to education, to shelter, to their culture as a community, and generally their lives.” They further encourage people, especially the youth of today, to continue to question and recognize the negative effects of Duterte’s regime to the country’s democracy.

 

For them, a hero is a person admired for their courageous actions and nobility which don't fit the qualities for late dictator Marcos and Pres. Duterte, “I believe that neither of these fascist individuals have such qualities [...] Not when communities of children, minorities, and workers who need most attention from the state continue to starve, live in poverty, and suffer in the hands of their abusive leaders,” elaborating on the innocent lives that suffer or die everyday, there’s still inequality between sectors of the society, and especially not when the government is profusely blocking and avoiding a systemic and political reformation.

 

Being a student who didn’t personally experience Martial Law in the 1970s, they think people should learn from the mistakes in Philippine history, “and not make the sacrifices of those who had fought with their lives for the betterment of our society and future generations of Filipinos go to waste,” believing the people shall keep fighting and keep on putting pressure in holding those people in office accountable. 

 

In conclusion, Maderazo simply wants students of today to realize that “we have to recognize our job as the generation next to lead. We have the responsibility to be informed of our history and also be aware of what is happening in the present, so as to not be doomed to repeat the flaws of our ancestors. We owe it to all the Filipino people to change the system and make it beneficial for everyone, not just for those who rule, but for each and every one of us.”

 

Ultimately, the Martial Law during the Marcos’ regime and current Pres. Duterte’s administration provided peril through the rise of military power, mounds of human rights violations, inequalities, and perished thousands of lives by stripping off one’s integrity and liberty. As it seems to give another blast from the past, one similarity remains—the power of which the people hold for democracy.