#23

• Day one of the Marcos dictatorship


  September 23, 1972
• Personalities considered threats to President Marcos (Senators Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Jose Diokno, Francisco Rodrigo, and Ramon Mitra Jr., and members of the media such as Joaquin Roces, Teodoro Locsin Sr., Maximo Soliven and Amando Doronila) had already been rounded up, starting with the arrest of Senator Aquino at midnight of September 22, and going into the early morning hours of September 23, when 100 of the 400 personalities targeted for arrest were already detained in Camp Crame by 4:00 a.m.
• In the meantime, the military had shut down mass media, flights were canceled, and incoming overseas calls were prohibited.
• Press Secretary Francisco Tatad went on air at 3:00 p.m. of September 23 to read the text of Proclamation No. 1081. The reading of the proclamation was followed by Marcos going on air at 7:15 p.m. to justify the massive clampdown of democratic institutions in the country.
• Marcos would subsequently issue General Order No. 1, s. 1972, transferring all powers to the President who was to rule by decree.
• The New York Times reported about these events in an article titled "Mass Arrests and Curfew Announced in Philippines; Mass Arrests Ordered in Philippines" in their September 24, 1972 issue. The Daily Express itself announced in its September 24 issue that Marcos had proclaimed martial law the day before, September 23, 1972.
• People say, not just the young, but even the people who lived through Martial Law said that "Marcos is the greatest president." They remember fondly that life was not that hard at that time. Because President Ferdinand Marcos imposed discipline and everyone was afraid of him, there was peace and order. And those who became victims of torture, they are not so many anyway, and most of them are really rebels and communists, enemies of the state. Because little development happened after the 1986 People Power that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, people even blame that revolution for making their lives worst and imagine a return to an iron fist regime that would once again "discipline" the Filipinos for our damaged culture.
• Imelda Marcos describes her husband's regime, "It was a compassionate society, it was a benevolent leadership." She also said, "Martial Law is the most peaceful democratic time in Philippine History."
• It was her delusion, and the regime's expertise in information control made it the delusion of a large portion of the country's population until today.
• Martial Law and the Military: On 21 September 1972, Marcos declared martial law to "save the republic and reform our society." A biography of the president justified martial law by saying that the society, "by its unresponsiveness to popular needs, had lost the right to exist."
• To help Marcos achieve his disciplined new society, he launched a massive militarization campaign. Military membership grew from 55,000 in 1972 to 250,000 in 1984, and its budget ballooned from P 608 million in 1972 to $ 8.8 billion in 1984. Military personnel, especially his llocano friends, where appointed to various posts in government and civilian bureaucracy. The president's former military driver, the loyal Ilocano General Fabian C. Ver, was eventually appointed as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The military were given a free hand in implementing peace and order.
• Despite seeming peace and order caused by Martial Law and the modernization of the military and constabulary (police), beyond the high walls of military camps and the lights and glamor of censored television and broadcasting, lies a dark face of Martial Law.
• President Marcos denied the human rights violations at first but when they become too many he said they were only isolated cases, and dismissed them as "aberrations".
• With such power and resources given to the military to "save" democracy, they were able to commit a number of human rights violations. And in stifling dissent, as Ninoy Aquino said, "in saving democracy, [Marcos] killed it."
• Statistics on the extent of human rights violations

  • 7,000 victims of torture
  • 2,000 salvaged or summarily executed
  • 1,000 people disappeared
• Additional statistics from the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines from 1965-1986

  • 2,668 incidents of arrests
  • 306 total number of arrested individuals
  • 398 disappearances
  • 1,338 salvagings
  • 128 frustrated salvagings
  • 1,499 killed or wounded in massacres
• Estimates from Amnesty International for the whole Martial Law years

  • 70,000 were imprisoned
  • 34,000 were tortured
  • 3,240 were killed
• The numbers vary and it would be impossible to account for everything since some victims and their families chose not to pursue it for fear for their lives. Despite the differences in statistics, these are not just numbers. Here are thousands of lives lost, and thousands of families destroyed. The human rights violations happened, and they were real.