Activists light candles on the 48th anniversary of the martial law declaration in the Philippines, in Quezon City on Sept. 21, 2020. (Photo Lisa Marie David/NurPhoto via AFP)
By Joseph Peter Calleja
Sep 19 2022
Activists pledge to fight attempts to ‘whitewash’ Philippine history by the current government regime.
Catholic clergy joined rights defenders and labor activists in the Philippines to kick off a series of protest rallies ahead of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the marital law that crippled the nation for about 14 years.
The rally in the national capital Manila was led by the left-wing youth group, Anak Bayan and the Trade Union of the Philippines, on Sept. 15. It also drew some victims of the martial law under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the father of the current president.
The demonstrators said the protest rallies aim to “awaken people’s consciousness on Philippine history.”
Martial law victims who joined the rally testified to remind people of the human rights violations under the dictatorial regime.
Anak Bayan member Lito Sevilla accused the Marcoses of “whitewashing the history of the Philippines” and opposed “all the fake news saying that martial law years are the golden era,” which he said is a complete lie.
He told the private television channel, NewsTV, on Sept. 15, that their protest was just the beginning of nationwide rallies to remind those who voted for President Marcos of the crimes his family committed during martial law.
“Today, we combat fake news with the truth- with testimonies from persons who were victimized by soldiers under the rule of Marcos, Sr.,” Sevilla added.
Father Timothy De Jesus of the Libmanan diocese, who joined the rally, said Filipinos must not be silent and afraid even when the Marcoses are back in power.
“Let us continue to educate the Filipino people by making our voice heard. We should not stay silent in the streets, or, more so on social media, of the injustice our people suffered from the Marcos family,” De Jesus told UCA News.
De Jesus said that the antidote to historical revisionism is historical facts.
“That’s why we are here today. We are here because people need to know the story of those who experienced martial law, those who saw the brutality of the Marcos regime. These are facts,” De Jesus added.
The Philippine Human Rights Commission recorded more than 11,200 cases of human rights violations during the martial law era from 1972 until 1986.
Almost 3,000 were killed or disappeared while 2,739 suffered physical abuse and torture at the hands of the police or the military during this period, the commission reported.
Besides massive rights violations and extrajudicial killings, Marcos and his family members are accused of stealing billions of dollars of state funds during the martial law regime.
In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled that over 25 billion pesos worth of Marcos’ assets were considered ill-gotten wealth.
Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in a popular, Church-backed mass uprising called the “People Power Movement” in 1986. He fled the country with his family and died in exile in Hawaii, United States in 1989.
His family then returned to the Philippines and made inroads into politics. The resurgence led to the winning of Marcos, Jr. in the presidential election on May 9.
Activists said they were ready to fight in the streets once again to save democracy from another Marcos regime.
“Our coalition is composed of members from almost all provinces in the Philippines from Mindanao to Luzon. We will do our duty once again to remind the people to remember martial law,” Sevilla added.
The Trade Union of the Philippines also burned an effigy of a troll that symbolized fake news spread by fake accounts to purportedly erase Marcos’ crimes in history books. – UCA News
