Philippine History

• On September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos placed the entirety of the Philippines under martial law, through Presidential Proclamation No. 1081, which was dated September 21, 1972.
• The Marcos administration lasted 14 years, effectively until Marcos was exiled from the country on February 25, 1986.
• Although the formal proclamation of martial law was lifted on January 17, 1981, Marcos retained virtually all of his powers as dictator until he was ousted by the EDSA Revolution.
• Marcos declared martial law in 1972 in response to the "communist threat" posed by the newly founded Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the sectarian "rebellion" of the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM).
• Opposition figures of the time, such as Lorenzo Tañada, José W. Diokno, and Jovito R. Salonga, accused Marcos of exaggerating these threats, using them as a convenient excuse to consolidate power and extend his reign beyond the two presidential terms allowed by the 1935 constitution.
• After Marcos was ousted, government investigators discovered that the declaration of martial law had also allowed the Marcoses to hide secret stashes of unexplained wealth which various courts later determined to be "of criminal origin."
• The Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 77 'disappeared', and 70,000 incarcerations.
• This continued until 1986 when Marcos went to exile after the People Power Revolution.
• The death sentence was never carried out by the Marcos government.
• The Washington Post in an interview with unnamed former Philippine Communist Party officials, stated that, "they (local communist party officials) wound up languishing in China for 10 years as unwilling "guests" of the (Chinese) government, feuding bitterly among themselves and with the party leadership in the Philippines".
• Diokno, Manila journalists include Manila Times publisher Chino Roces and columnist Max Soliven, Manila Chronicle publisher Eugene Lopez Jr., Philippines Free publisher-editor Teodoro Locsin Sr., and Press Foundation of Asia joint executive Juan L. Mercado.
• Many of those arrested during the martial law period were later freed without charges, but Benigno Aquino Jr. was charged and convicted along with his two co-accused, NPA leaders Bernabe Buscayno (Commander Dante) and Lt. Victor Corpuz, of illegal possession of firearms, subversion, and murder, and was sentenced by a military court to death by firing squad.
• The government captured NPA leaders Bernabe Buscayno in 1976 and Jose Maria Sison in 1977.
• Marcos continued to rule the country while retaining virtually all of the executive powers he held as dictator, through a combination of the 1972 constitution and the various decrees he had put in place before martial law, which all remained in effect.
• Proclamation 2045 and continued dictatorship Martial law was lifted by President Marcos on January 17, 1981, through Proclamation 2045.
• Marcos' move to create a new Philippine constitution by pushing for the creation of the 1971 Philippine Constitutional Convention lent credence to the belief that Marcos wanted to stay in power, especially when delegate Eduardo Quintero implicated Imelda Marcos in a payoff scheme for delegates who voted against the "Block Marcos" amendments which would disallow Marcos from running again.
• The effects of the Balance of Payments of Crisis started making themselves felt almost immediately after Marcos second inauguration, setting the stage for several events which Marcos eventually cited as justifications for martial law.
• Anti-communist rhetoric was a key part of Marcos' political strategy, painting a large "communist threat" to court the Johnson administration's political support in light of its cold war policies and drumming up local support as the Philippines was caught up in the same red scare which affected the US.
• Marcos' term limits before martial law were three and a half years, as per the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines.
• Marcos won his campaign and was ready for his second inauguration amidst a social volcano ready to explode.
• The First Quarter Storm led to the radicalization of many students, with at least two activists confirmed dead and several injured by the police.
• The political and economic unrest of the early 1970s continued throughout the three and a half years of Marcos' second term, with rumors proliferating that he would try to remain in power beyond the two terms allowed him by the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines.
• The acquisition of arms by the New People's Army, as evidenced by the 1970 PMA armory raid, was another justification cited by the Marcos government for martial law.
• The First Quarter Storm protests of January to March 1970 were a period of civil unrest organized by students and labor groups to protest authoritarianism, alleged election cheating, and corruption under Marcos.
• Through a very bad combination of loan-funded deficit spending and large-scale infrastructure projects, the administration of Ferdinand Marcos became very popular during his first term as president — enough so that Marcos ran for reelection in 1969 and succeeded in becoming the first president of the Third Philippine Republic to be re-elected.
• To assure this win, Marcos launched US$50 million worth in infrastructure projects in 1969 to create an impression of progress for the electorate.
• The ramp-up on loan-funded government spending led the Marcos administration to its first major economic crisis.
• The campaign spending spree was so massive that it caused a balance of payments crisis, so the government was compelled to seek a debt rescheduling plan with the International Monetary Fund.
• The IMF mandated stabilization plan which accompanied the agreement included numerous macroeconomic interventions, including a shift away from the Philippines' historical economic strategy of import substitution industrialization and towards export-oriented industrialization; and the allowing the Philippine Peso to float and devalue.
• The inflationary effect these interventions had on the local economy brought about the social unrest which was the rationalization for the proclamation of martial law in 1972.
• Hamletting also meant deprivation of property without due process as the hamletting was implemented by force and often with threat of bodily harm to the residents.
• Marcos' direct involvement with these arrests and detention cannot be denied as any person may be arrested on the basis of a personal order under a presidential commitment order (PCO), and later on, preventive detention action (PDA).
• Settlers and tribal groups have been evicted from their lands, and those who had legitimate grievances were suppressed by the military.
• Church workers, human rights activists, legal aid lawyers, labor leaders, and journalists were among those arrested and detained.
• Political prisoners of advanced age were denied or not given adequate access to medical treatment, contributing to the deterioration of their health.
• Arrests and detention were widespread, often in relation to dissent from government policies that was taken as evidence of rebellion, subversion, and connection with the New People's Army.
• Some detainees were also taken to "safehouses" or unknown detention locations to prevent access by the families and lawyers.
• Detainees were often held for long periods of time without trial and released later on for insufficiency of evidence.
• The Integrated bar of the Philippines opposed hamletting because it constituted restriction on the freedom of movement and was a violation of the liberty of abode and freedom to travel.
• Despite the supposed end of martial law, the Philippines continued to experience increased militarization.