‘September 21. We will never forget.’
On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. declared Martial Law in the Philippines by virtue of Proclamation No. 1081.
It marked the beginning of a 14-year period of one-man rule, which effectively lasted until Marcos was exiled from the country on February 25, 1986.
Proclamation No. 1081 was formally lifted on January 17, 1981 by Proclamation No. 2045.
On September 17, 2018, University of the Philippines (UP) President Danilo Concepcion signed Proclamation No. 1, Series of 2018, declaring September 21 every year as UP Day of Remembrance.
The day serves to commemorate members of the UP community who stood at the forefront of the resistance to Martial Law.
‘It serves to highlight the University’s role as a champion of academic freedom and as a beacon of hope and an advocate of human rights during the darkest days of democracy in the country,’ UP said on its website.
The Day is intended ‘to remember the sacrifices and legacy of UP heroes, the living and the fallen, and to impart their stories to younger generations of Iskolar ng Bayan and other patriotic Filipinos.’
‘As we remember our heroes, may we carry forward the lessons they gave us in confronting the challenges of our nation today-especially in safeguarding our hard-won rights and freedoms.’
Activist Judy Taguiwalo views the UP Day as a vital commitment to continue nation-building and resist historical revisionism.
‘The attempt at historical revisionism of the Marcoses is essentially forgetting the dark chapter of our history and the sacrifices of so many people, including teachers and students of UP campuses,’ Taguiwalo said.
She stressed that the commemoration ‘is not just a walk down memory lane, but a pledge that the fight against ongoing issues like human rights violations, plunder, corruption, and environmental destruction must persist.’
I was born in the same period when the First Quarter Storm (FQS) was associated with anti-Martial Law protests, mostly led by UP students and faculty, the same academe where I later spent a decade of my student life.
Back in the 1970s, many members of the UP community participated in protests against the reign of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., prompting the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972.
FQS was a period of civil unrest with series of demonstrations, protests, and marches against the Marcos Sr. administration, mostly organized by students, which took place during the ‘first quarter of the year 1970’ or from January 26 to March 17, 1970.
Violent dispersals of ensuing FQS protests were among the first watershed events in which large numbers of Filipino students of the 1970s were radicalized against the Marcos administration.
The regime was marked by extensive, systematic human rights violations including 3,257 cases of extrajudicial killings, 35,000 torture, 737 enforced disappearances, and 70,000 arbitrary incarcerations.
Many became ‘desaparecidos,’ which is the Spanish and Portuguese word for ‘disappeared people’ or victims of forced disappearance.
The victims are subjected to extrajudicial punishment wherein government elements abduct a person to vanish from public view. The victim is first kidnapped, and then illegally detained in a secret location, often tortured, and finally executed and the corpse hidden.
‘The greatest threat to freedom is the shortness of human memory,’ former Supreme Court Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee said in the case of Olaguer v. Military Commission (GR L-54558 May 22, 1987) as he gave recognition to ‘the unforgettable and noble sacrifices of the countless brave and patriotic men and women who fell as martyrs and victims during the long dark years of the deposed regime.’
The Guinness World Records gave the late dictator a title for the ‘Greatest Robbery of a Government’ citing $860.8 million worth of assets such as Swiss bank deposits, shares of stock and real estate, sale of surrendered properties and assets and paintings, and pieces of jewelry from the Marcoses and cronies.
In Marcos v. Manglapus, (GR 88211 September 15, 1989), the Court said that ‘nor are the woes of the Republic purely political. The accumulated foreign debt and the plunder of the nation attributed to Mr. Marcos and his cronies left the economy devastated xxx. We cannot ignore the continually increasing burden imposed on the economy by the excessive foreign borrowing during the Marcos regime, which stifles and stagnates development and is one of the root causes of widespread poverty and all its attendant ills.’
The Supreme Court described the Marcos Sr. dictatorship as a ‘well-entrenched plundering regime of 20 years.’ in PCGG v. Peña (GR L-77663, April 12, 1988)
The SC noted the ‘magnitude of the Marcos regime’s ‘organized pillage’ and the ingenuity of the plunderers and pillagers with the assistance of the experts and best legal minds available in the market.’
Peyups is the moniker of the University of the Philippines. Atty. Dennis R. Gorecho heads the Seafarers’ Division of the Sapalo Velez Bundang Bulilan Law Offices. For comments, e-mail info@sapalovelez.com, or call 0908-8665786.