Michael Charleston B.

Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

TORTURE A Preliminary Look at Brutality and Its Effects Under the Marcos Dictatorship (1972-1986)1

Michael Charleston B. Chua Department of History University of the Philippines at Diliman

I.

Introduction

It was a compassionate society, it was a benevolent leadership,2 said Imelda Marcos about her husbands Martial Law rule (1972-1981) and the years until he stepped down in 1986. It was her delusion. In fact, it became the darkest period of Philippine contemporary

history. It placed President Ferdinand E. Marcos among the roster of great tyrants such as Pern, Suharto and Idi Amin. Under Marcos, the military launched a reign of terror that

gave birth to a new generation of heroes and martyrs.

This paper aims to prove, by looking at some statistics and by citing some documented cases, the existence of human rights violations by the military in what Imelda described as the most peaceful and democratic time in Philippine history3 and analyze its desired effects on the individual, his/her family, and to the country in general. And is Marcos guilty and responsible for these crimes?

Originally submitted for Dr. Ma. Serena Dioknos Kasaysayan 10 class in the first semester of 2002-2003, this paper won in the Paper Presentation Series for the Department of History, sponsored by the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Student Council, UP Diliman, in January of 2003. Based on the high school mini-thesis and annotated bibliography, Martial Law: Never Again Some Reported Cases of Atrocities and Brutalities of the Marcos Dictatorship (1965-1986) submitted to Mrs. Julieta Paras at St. Matthew Christian Academy, 12 March 2001. The essay was edited by Gretchen Sur Wilwayco, 2006. 2 Batas Militar, documentary by the Foundation For World Wide People Power, September 1997. 3 Maurice Malanes, Remembering Martial Law, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 16.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Also, this paper aims to provide young people, who may never have heard of what happened in those dark times, a concise, readable primer to the excesses of tyranny, and help them realize the importance of learning from history, specially those events that happened three decades ago.

II.

Martial Law and the Military

On 21 September 1972, Marcos declared martial law to save the republic and reform our society.4 Francisco Tatad, his press secretary, justified martial law because the society, by its unresponsiveness to popular needs, had lost the right to exist.5

To establish the foundations of a disciplined new society, Marcos made the military very strong and very powerful. To the regime, it was the Army with a heart.6 As it was given a free hand in implementing peace and order,7 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 1984.8

It was the height of military might in the Philippines. Never before were the Armed Forces given so much power and money. They became very influential; officers, especially

Marcoss Ilocano friends, occupied various posts in government and the civilian bureaucracy.

4 5

Batas Militar Marcos of the Philippines, introduction by Francisco S. Tatad (Manila: Dept. of Public Information, 1975),

p. 150. Marcos of the Philippines, p. 152. James Hamilton-Patterson, Americas Boy: The Marcoses And The Philippines (London: Granta Books, l998), p. 301. 8 Mariel Nepomuceno-Francisco and Maria C. Arriola, The History of the Burgis (Quezon City: GCF Books, 1987), p. 177.
7 6

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

They headed housing, postal services, transportation and other public utilities.9

3
They

thought they were untouchable, and so they committed, without any conscience, the brutalities that defined an era.

III.

The Numbers: Hair-raising

Statistics on the extent of human rights violations were hair-raising.

Danilo Vizmanos, a

West Point-trained Navy Captain turned activist, estimates the extent of suffering under martial law: 7,000 victims of torture 2,000 salvaged or summarily executed 1,000 people disappeared.10 His estimate is similar to the number of legal claimants of human rights violations against the Marcoses: 9,539.11 Task Force Detainees of the Philippines has other numbers. From 1965-1986, the numbers were as follows: 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.12 Amnesty International, 1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and respected activist organization on global human rights, sums up the cases in the whole martial law years:

9 10 11 12

Ibid, p. 177. Malanes, p. 16. Etta Rosales, Face Off, The Philippine Star, 3 March 1947, p. 12. Karinyo Militar, reported by Jing Magsaysay in The Correspondents. ABS-CBN, 20 September l999.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

70,000 were imprisoned 34,000 were tortured 3,240 were killed.13

And because of fear of the dictatorship, some victims chose to keep their silence and were unaccounted for in the statistics. It would be an impossible task to account for

everything, especially in those times when the iron fist was over our land. And although the numbers vary, they nonetheless prove one thing: the brutalities did happen. real. They were

IV.

Psychological & Emotional Torture: What Loneliness Meant

If you were a VIP (e.g. an oppositionist politician or an enemy tycoon) during martial law, being detained would be the only worst thing that could happen to you. In my analysis of the following cases, the isolations desired effect is to shake ones principle and to instill fear.

When Martial Law was proclaimed, Ramon Mitra was an incumbent senator. For a hundred days, he was placed under solitary confinement with nobody to talk to, just by yourself. He did things to keep his sanity like reciting poems or singing songs. The soldiers thought he was crazy. He would be awakened at 1:00 am and brought outside to hear the sounds of guns, and then be returned to his cell and told to relax. But these psychological tortures made Mitra firmer about his beliefs.14

13 14

Batas Militar. Karla Delgado, Man Of Courage, Sunday Inquirer Magazine, 24 October 1999, p. 14.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Among the first to be arrested were oppositionist senators Benigno Ninoy Aquino and Jose Pepe Diokno. On 12 March 1973, nearly in their fifth month of detention, the two were blindfolded and flown to Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija. Ninoy recounted,

Theyplaced me in a box. I had only my brief and my t-shirt. I refused to eat because I thought they were poisoning me. There was nothing in the

room, barely nothing. And I had nothing to do but twiddle my thumb, and for the first time in my life I heard the ticking of every second, and I was counting every second into minutes, and as the minutes marched into hours, and hours into days and days into weeks, I knew what loneliness meant.15

Nobody knew where they were, or if they were still alive. To be assured that they still had each other, Ninoy would usually sing Bayan Ko. anthem.16 Pepe would answer with the national

Being placed in this situation was surely a very degrading and humiliating They were in this state for thirty days. The dictatorship

experience for them as senators of the republic.

The thought that God had left him made Ninoy extremely depressed.17 may have thought that they had succeeded in breaking their spirits.

But of course, they were wrong.

Ninoy referred to the Laur incident as a life-changing

experience where he found his faith and his God,18 and continued to work for the dismantlement of the regime until he was felled by an assassins bullet on 21 August 1983. Pepe Diokno, upon release, became a human rights lawyer and lived to see the ouster of Marcos on 25 February 1986.

Ninoy: The Heart And The Soul, documentary by The Aquino Foundation, 2001. Miguela G. Yap, The Making of Cory (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1987), pp. 42-43. 17 Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., Testament From A Prison Cell (Makati: Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Foundation, Inc, 1984), p. 139. 18 Ninoy: The Heart And The Soul.
16

15

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Detention was an effective way to silence the dictators enemies. detained became firmer and made a new meaning for the word heroism.

6
But some of those

V.

Physical Torture: Not Even For Animals

If you were arrested, and were not as privileged as the VIPs, you could be subjected to physical torture unthinkable for someone with a conscience.

Ninoy Aquino wrote an essay while in prison entitled Evidence Tortured Into Existence, where he frequently cited highly credible sources in compiling the cases of torture inflicted by the Brown Shirts:19 Amnesty International, and the International Commission on Jurists, who researched extensively on torture cases during mid-70s Philippines. Marcos used to deny these incidents but they became too many to be denied, he then dismissed them as aberrations.20

Many of the victims were detained for political reasons, but some of them were small people and innocent.21 These people were not really criminals, were arrested without

warrant, and werent formally charged. Usually, victims would be brought to safe houses upon arrest where they would be subjected to physical torture. After a few days, they

would be confined in the military hospital or detained and kept incommunicado for long periods of time. Under military custody, the victims would be tortured freely with extreme cruelty22 using more than one of the torture techniques listed below. Brace yourselves, for these cruelties shouldnt be inflicted on anyone, not even on animals.

Aquino, Jr., p. 110. This is how Ninoy described the elements of constabulary, investigation and intelligence groups. 20 Ibid, pp. 88-89. 21 Types of tortures and names cited on this section all came from Aquino, Jr., pp. 89-105, 110-113. 22 Ibid, p. 89.

19

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Electric Shockone of the frequently used techniques.

7
Usually, the electric wires were

attached to fingers and the genitalia of the victim, as inflicted on Charlie Revilla Palma and Wilfredo Hilao. Sometimes, wires were attached to the arms and the head, just like what happened to Romeo Tolio.

San Juanico Bridgethe victim lies between two beds and if his/her body falls or sags, the victim will be beaten. This was just one of the many tortures inflicted on Jose Lacaba and Bonifacio Ilagan.

Truth Serumadministered at the V. Luna General Hospital. drunkenly.

It made Lacaba talk

Russian Roulettethe victim is forced to aim a revolver with a bullet at his/her own head and then pull the trigger. This was used to further terrify Rev. Cesar Taguba and Carlos Centenera while being subjected to other tortures.

Beatinganother favorite technique where a group of soldiers would beat with fists, kicks and karate blows23 manacled victims. Almost all those who were tortured where subjected to this beating, among them Julius Giron, Macario Tiu, Eugenio Magpantay, and Joseph Gatus.

Pistol-Whippingbeating with rifle butts; one of the techniques endured by Reynaldo Guillermo, Roberto Sunga, Joseph Gatus and Nathan Quimpo.

23

Ibid, p. 89.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Water Cureanother favorite technique. Huge amounts of water would be forced through into the victims mouth, and by beating would be forced out. This was applied to Guillermo Ponce de Leon, Alfonso Abzagado and Andrew Ocampo.

StrangulationDone by hand, electric wire and steel bar to Carlos Centenera, and for two months his speech was impaired. Tatanis and Juan Villegas. Others who claimed to be strangulated were Willie

Cigar Burnsbonus you would get under torture. Received by Marcelino Tolam, Jr. and Philip Limjoco.

Pepper TortureMeynardo Espeletas bonus was a concentrated peppery substance placed on his lips and genitals.24

Animal Treatmentvictims are manacled and caged like beasts. For three days, Leandro Manalo was caged inside a toilet handcuffed and blindfolded. Because of the experience he got viral hepatitis. For long periods of time, manacles were not removed from Alexander Arevalo, Manuel Daez, Marcelo Gallarin, Romualdo Inductivo, Faustino Samonte and Rodolfo Macasalabang, even if they ate, discharged their waste, took baths or slept. Food was

given to them as if they were dogs, shoved under the iron grilles.25 And they ate without even knowing what the food was because there were no lights in their cell.26 despite his old age, was mercilessly slapped and electrocuted under torture. Inductivo,

Two more cases illustrate cruelty at its worst.

24 25 26

Ibid, p. 104. Ibid, p. 110. Ibid, pp. 110-112.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Peter Villaseor was brought to a camp in Bataan where he was tortured for nine nights and nine days. While he was hung naked from the ceiling, soldiers would flick his genitals and walis tambo was inserted into his urinary tract. Thumbtacks were also inserted into his fingertips. Bayonets were placed in his elbows and his mouth. Naked, he was made to sit on three blocks of ice. Electric shock was applied to his toe and his genitalia. A stone was knocked repeatedly on his knees. While his head and stomach were beaten, water drops were forced into his nose.27

Satur Ocampo, director of a newspapers workers union, was brought to a safe house. Manacled and blindfolded, soldiers poured cola drinks on him while being electrocuted, so as to cause more pain. His ears, nose, esophagus and head were slapped. His nipples and genitalia were burned. He was forced to eat manure and was threatened to be castrated or be killed. Brig. Gen. Thomas P. Diaz, First Police Constabulary Zone Commander, who

didnt believe the torture exclaimed, My God! when he was shown marks on Ocampos body.28

These are just a few of the documented cases. The testimonies of these victims cannot be dismissed as mere lies. Note the corroboration of their stories with other victims stories concerning the torture techniques used and the way victims were treated.

To Ninoy, these inhumane acts tell a tale of premeditated violence, torture and dehumanization to break the human spirit, reduce men into whimpering animals.29 Military elements used torture to extract confessions from people suspected to be involved in treason, insurrection and rebellion, or to make the victim implicate somebody, or to just scare not only the individual, but the community as well.
27 28 29

They must have thought of

Karinyo Militar, Aquino, Jr., p. 100. Ibid, p. 109.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

themselves as gods playing with human life.

10

The desired effect of this kind of ordeal

inflicted on political detainees was beyond physical. Unlike the wounds that are temporary and may heal in a matter of days, being subjected to such an extreme kind of pain traumatized the victims. Emotional ang psychological wounds take a longer time to heal.

VI.

Sexual Torture: It hurts more!

Women were not spared! It is unbelievable for me that in a time and culture that considers women fragile, documented physical and sexual torture of women did exist.

From 22 June to 4 July 1975, Lt. Rodolfo Aguinaldo placed ten women detainees in a small cell furnished with tin cans to hold their urine. One of them was pregnant. All became sick of a respiratory infection that eventually spread to other detainees in the area.30

Etta Rosales, a teacher at the Jos Rizal College, was brought to a safe house in Pasig where she was tortured. She was stripped naked when she suffered the Russian Roulette, electric shocks, strangulation, and candle burns. pretended to be dying. His torturers only stopped when she

Years later, one of her torturers, Lt. Rodolfo Aguinaldo, even

became her colleague at the House of Representatives.31

Hilda Narciso was placed in a small room where she was raped; She was fed soup of worms and rotten fish. She would be awoken right after falling asleep in order to be

tortured once more. She said in Filipino, Mental torture hurts. Sexual torture hurts more!

30 31

Ibid, p. 97. Karinyo Militar.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

I can bear physical torture.

11

Currently, she is the executive director Claimants 1081, a

group that filed human rights violations against the Marcoses.32

Judy Taguiwalo, student activist, community organizer and now teaches at UP, was brought to a military office in Iloilo. She was stripped naked as she was subjected to water torture. The next day, she fought a soldier attempting to mash her and make her sit on a block of ice. She still felt lucky she wasnt raped.33

Fe Mangahas, active member of the faculty union of the University of the East, was arrested along with her husband, Roger. Although she was just detained for one night, her husband stayed 19 months more. She described that night in Camp Aguinaldo where She confirmed the existence of a building

people [were] walking around like zombies.

called the white house where screams of women molested were regularly heard. To her, the thought of how long martial law would last was very difficult.34

Isabelita Guillermo was arrested with her husband Reynaldo.

She unwillingly watched

her husbands torture. Pregnant, she was threatened with rape and abortion. She was still under military custody when her child was born.35

Erlinda Tanve-Co, wife of a political detainee, was told that they would be fine in detention with her 5-year old son. The next morning they were separated from each other. While blindfolded and handcuffed to a metal bed, she was beaten and was molested. suffered this for twenty-five days.36 She

Ibid. Claimants named so after Presidential Proclamation 1081: Martial Law. Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, The Pain of Wives and Mothers, Sunday Inquirer Magazine, 19 September 1999, p. 14. 34 Ibid, p. 4. 35 Aquino, Jr., p. 96. 36 Ibid, pp. 101, 102.
33

32

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

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Lualhati Roque, twenty-five years old, was sexually abused and tortured by constabulary elements. Despite her rheumatic heart ailment, she wasnt permitted to rest or given

medical attention.37

Maria Elena-Ang was electrocuted, water cured, deprived of sleep, pistol-whipped and was subjected to sexual indignities. She was threatened with suggestions that her relatives would also be harmed.38

There are various effects on the individual and family of these brutalities against the Filipina. Apart from causing physical damage, they aim to break the spirit. Rape and other such sexual indignities were meant to isolate the individual from his or her compatriots and the society. The violation of what they held sacred was so shameful that there could never be an actual count of how many detainees were raped or molested.

In some cases, the pain of wives and mothers alomost destroyed their families. After her husbands detention, Fe Mangahas marriage almost broke down, as she and her husband felt very estranged from each other. Her husband and son experienced health problems, and her career was ruined.39 Tell me, who would not be sickened by this kind of brutality?

Yet many of those women who suffered, like Rosales, Narciso and Taguiwalo strengthened their principles and are continuing the fight for what they believe up to now. Women were not spared from the torture because patriotism does not choose any gender.

37 38 39

Ibid, p. 102. Ibid, p. 104. dela Cruz, p. 4.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

VII. Desaparecidos: They Never Came Home

13

They disappeared without trace until now, the desaparecidos. Satur Ocampo estimated the number of disappearances involving political opponents during Martial Law as probably around 2,000.40 This number is still debatable, because at the end of 1992, FIND (Families of Victims Of Involuntary Disappearances) gave its count as 1,586, and this includes the six-year rule of Cory Aquino in which they claim that more people disappeared than in the twenty-year Marcos dictatorship.41 Task Force Detainees actual count is only 398.42

Nevertheless, this doesnt disprove the fact that there are desaparecidos and that I believe, like in other cases, many are still unaccounted for.

Among the cases of this nature, the most famous would be Primitivo Mijares. Tibo was the propaganda minister of Marcos, who quarreled with Imeldas brother Kokoy in 1975. He broke away from Marcos and testified against his graft, corruption and repression in the US Congress. In America, he published his famous book The Conjugal Dictatorship of

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos I, which provided, not only an inside look at the dictatorship, but also his own account of the brutalities. While on his way to Manila, he disappeared, and was never seen again.43

When Ninoy Aquino was killed in 1983, the government implicated Rolando Galman, who supposedly died with him. During the course of investigation, four people who could give

Patterson, p. 317. Ibid, pp. 400, 401. 42 Karinyo Militar, 43 William C. Rempel, Delusions Of A Dictator: The Mind Of Marcos As Revealed in His Secret Diaries (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993), p. 204.
41

40

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

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testimony for Galman disappeared, his wife Lina Lazaro, his mistress Anna Oliva and her sister Catherine, and Galmans best friend and neighbor Rogelio Taruc.44

In this kind of case, its the victims family who bears the fear and the pain.

Parents,

children, relatives, or friends never came home. One mother of a desaparecido still hopes, up to now, that her son will still come home.45 Shortly after Tibos disappearance, his

widow suffered even more when her teenage son Boyet was found dead, brutally tortured, fingernails all removed and body mutilated with thirty-three ice pick wounds.46 And although we could never tell for sure if the Brown Shirts have anything to do with the disappearances, with the political circumstances that they disappeared, I couldnt see any other suspects who have the motive, capacity and power to commit all these.

VIII. Murder!!!

The worst thing that could happen to a political opponent is, of course, be killed.

Among the roughly three thousand killed during Martial Law are the cases listed below. I only selected the ones with direct military connection. There are other political killings, but military involvement couldnt be established, such as the murders of Dr. Bobby dela Paz and Evelio Javier.

Liliosa Hilao, a brilliant writer of the student movement, was arrested, sexually molested and died in military custody. muriatic acid.
44

The military claimed she committed suicide by drinking Her mouth became an ashtray full of

But the autopsy said otherwise.

Reports of the Fact-Finding Board on the Assasination of Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. (Makati:
Mr.&Ms. Publishing Co., 1984), pp. 17, 61 ,63. 45 dela Cruz, p. 4. 46 Batas Militar.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

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cigarette wounds. Her mother recounted how much Lilys body was maltreated: They cut her body up with a saw, took out her brain and stomach, and tore them into pieces like dinuguan, and placed these in a pale. During her funeral, the militarys all around.47

Edgar Jopson was an Ateneo scholar and activist who led demonstrations against Marcos during the First Quarter Storm; he even bravely negotiated with Marcos himself.48 He went up to the hills to join the communist New Peoples Army after the proclamation of Martial Law. He was captured, tortured and escaped by bribing his guard. In 1982, he was hunted and killed by a constabulary raiding party in Mindanao. The church claimed that he was

executed and his university gave him a memorial fit for a hero, which the regime objected.49

Military brutalities didnt spare the clergy and laypersons which the regime believed were sympathetic to the communists.50 In 1982, Dutch Jesuit Fr. Anthony Schouten was almost killed when his convent in Zamboanga del Sur was shot up by soldiers. He believed that the military were getting back at him because he complained about the bombing of a village by the Air Force, the killings of innocent women and children, and the militarys torture and eventual murder of his two parishioners.51 Fr. Zacarias Agatep, however, was shot and killed by military men while defending the lands of his parishioners, which they held sacred. They believed he was a communist guerilla and they placed a bounty of P 260,000.00 on his head dead or alive.52

Shameless murders were more likely committed in the countryside, where not so many would see.

47 48 49 50 51 52

Anak ng Bayan, documentary by ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, 13 June 1999. Ibid. Rempel, p. 201. Patterson, p. 328. Charles C. McDougald, The Marcos File (San Francisco: San Francisco Publishers, 1987), pp. 151-152. Ibid, p. 153.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

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Marcoss proposal of the Chico River Dam Project angered the tribes in Mt. Province and Kalinga whose ancestral lands would be affected. threatening guns, and won. The price of victory: They fought, despite the soldiers

people arrested, detained and killed.53

One of them was the tribal leader Macli-ing Dulag, who was killed by soldiers when they shot up his hut. Also, Tingguians and some Cordillera tribe protested the operation of a

crony paper mill that would eat up 200,000 hectares of their land. In the process, many were arrested, detained and killed.54 Combining Marcoss disrespect to tribal land and

tradition, and the militarys disrespect to human dignity and life.

In Abra, when soldiers kill people, they frequently cut off their heads. One time, a priest who went to the hills and a couple of women rebels were ambushed, killed and their heads cut off. The heads were brought to different villages to be exposed and to threaten the

people. The heads were then buried separated from the bodies. A constabulary sergeant took responsibility for this.55

On the eve of the anniversary of martial law in 1985, 7,000 people gathered, in peace, in front of the Escalante Municipal Hall to protest the dictatorship. To their shock, combined government troopers and paramilitary men fired on them, leaving 21 dead and 42 injured. This incident went down in history as the Escalante Massacre.56

The killings were designed to control the community and to scare those who were in struggle against Martial Law. They became commonplace, as Fe Mangahas described,

53 54

Malanes, p. 16. Cynthia S. Baron and Melba M. Suazo, Nine Letters: The Story of the 1986 Filipino Revolution (Quezon City: Gerardo P. Baron, 1986), p. 93. 55 Arthur Zich, Hope And Danger in the Philippines, National Geographic, July 1986, pp. 112, 113. 56 Carla P. Gomez, 21 Massacre victims denied justice, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 14.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

Every week, someone we knew was being buried.57 The family bears the pain.

17

The community receives the fear.

Imagine the feeling of losing a loved one in such a violent

manner. Is death the price of fighting for what you think is right?

IX.

Conclusion

For the country in general, the brutalities of martial law brought silence. True enough, the country became peaceful in the sense that the people in general became disciplined. There were fewer crimes committed. In the papers, it was always good news. It seemed that the new society had succeeded in creating a more disciplined citizenry. Yet, who wouldnt be disciplined if those who opposed the regime were tortured and sometimes killed? The new society had succeeded in sowing terror, and from this most of the Filipinos cowered in fear. They had surrendered their freedoms to a tyrant to keep their lives from falling apart. They had become silent. Indeed, it was peace, it was discipline, but at what cost? Is it at the expense of lives ruined and lives lost? Why should many people have to suffer like that? Why should they bear such brutalities?

In a TV interview, Prof. Maria Serena Diokno, daughter of the late Ka Pepe Diokno, best described the martial law era as a time when there was almost no justice.58

If we would believe Marcoss public pronouncements, we can assume he didnt know anything. No single case of maltreatment is to me permissible. One solitary victim is

enough to arouse my anger.59 In an interview with Amnesty International, he boasted, No

57 58 59

dela Cruz, p. 4. Lakas Sambayanan, documentary by the Foundation For World Wide People Power, February 2002. Aquino, Jr., p. 117.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

political prisoners, nobody is imprisoned because of his political belief.60

18
Later, Imelda

Marcos claimed that they didnt commit any human rights violations in the Philippines.61

Yet, interviewed military officers and men admitted of the harms brought by martial law to the country, but they dont assume responsibility because they were just following orders.62

So who would answer for all these brutalities?

Military officers and men who committed Their

human rights violations are responsible because they abused their authority.

uncontrollable use of torture and murder indicate their power tripping. A certain Bonifacio Salvador supported this statement, One would often get kicked if the military did not like your face.63 Also, they had followed orders that were unlawful, for Marcos himself publicly condemned torture, so that makes them law breakers, and therefore, are responsible.

But we shouldnt spare Marcos. As commander in chief of the whole Armed Forces of the Philippines including the Philippine Constabulary and Integrated National Police, whether he knew about the brutalities or not, he must assume full command responsibility. It was he who gave power to the military. Moreover, he favored and placed his Ilocano friends in

significant posts in the military. He and his comrades were on top of the situation. And because the human rights violations were so obvious, that even without press freedom, everybody knew about them, except perhaps Imelda, then, his pronouncements were mere propaganda. He lied about the torture!

60 61 62 63

Sandaan, commemorative album for the Philippine Centennial by Universal Records, 1998. Batas Militar. Ibid. I thought Martial Law was named after Marcial Lo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 16.

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

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Filipinos hurting and killing fellow Filipinos, indeed, martial law brought us shame, not only amongst ourselves, but also with the world. Yet, we shouldnt forget the brutalities.

Rather, it is our duty to remember and to tell the young what really happened during the dictatorship. Its sad that most teenagers now are unaware of our countrys past. Its

important to share these stories in order for the young to cherish the freedom we have now and not take it for granted, to be vigilant in safeguarding it, and to fight for it if necessary. We should tell the future leaders and citizens of this country that never again should the pain of military brutality rule over us. For in learning history, we can avoid repeating its tragedies. Never again, never again

19 August 2002

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila

SOURCES CITED:

20

A Dangerous Life. Four-part television movie produced by Shuiyi Investment, Ltd., 1988. Anak ng Bayan. Documentary by ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, 13 June 1999. Bagong Lipunan. Reported by Rico Yan in The Correspondents. ABS-CBN, 20 September l999. Batas Militar. Documentary by the Foundation For World Wide People Power, 1997. Aquino, Benigno S., Jr. Testament From A Prison Cell. Foundation, Inc, 1984. Baron, Cynthia S. and Melba M. Suazo. Nine Letters: Revolution. Quezon City: Gerardo P. Baron, 1986. Makati: Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

The Story of the 1986 Filipino

Dela Cruz, Pennie Azarcon. The Pain of Wives and Mothers, Sunday Inquirer Magazine, 19 September 1999, p. 4. Delgado, Karla. Man Of Courage, Sunday Inquirer Magazine, 24 October 1999, p. 14. Francisco, Mariel Nepomuceno and Maria C. Arriola. The History of the Burgis. Quezon City: GCF Books, 1987. Gomez, Carla P. 21 Massacre victims denied justice, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 14. I thought Martial Law was named after Marcial Lo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 16. Karinyo Militar. September l999. Reported by Jing Magsaysay in The Correspondents. ABS-CBN, 20

Lakas Sambayanan. Documentary by the Foundation For World Wide People Power, 2002. Malanes, Maurice. Remembering Martial Law, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 16 Maramba, Asuncion David (ed.). Six Modern Filipino Heroes. Pasig City: Anvil Publishing, Inc., 1993. Marcos of the Philippines. Information, 1975. Introduction by Francisco S. Tatad. Manila: Dept. of Public

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