KasPil2 M3 - Chua - Torture

Michael Charleston B. Chua, KasPil2 readings, DLSU-Manila 1

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 husband’s 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

Perón, 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?

1 Originally submitted for Dr. Ma. Serena Diokno’s 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.


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

Marcos’s Ilocano friends, occupied various posts in government and the civilian bureaucracy.

4 “Batas Militar” 5 Marcos of the Philippines, introduction by Francisco S. Tatad (Manila: Dept. of Public Information, 1975), p. 150. 6 Marcos of the Philippines, p. 152. 7 James Hamilton-Patterson, America’s 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.


They headed “housing, postal services, transportation and other public utilities.”9 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 Ibid, p. 177. 10 Malanes, p. 16. 11 Etta Rosales, “Face Off,” The Philippine Star, 3 March 1947, p. 12. 12 “Karinyo Militar,” reported by Jing Magsaysay in The Correspondents. ABS-CBN, 20 September l999.


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. They were

real.

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 isolation’s desired effect is to shake one’s 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 “Batas Militar.” 14 Karla Delgado, “Man Of Courage,” Sunday Inquirer Magazine, 24 October 1999, p. 14.


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,

They…placed 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. Pepe would answer with the national

anthem.16 Being placed in this situation was surely a very degrading and humiliating

experience for them as senators of the republic. They were in this state for thirty days.

The thought that God had left him made Ninoy extremely depressed.17 The dictatorship

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 assassin’s 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.

15 “Ninoy: The Heart And The Soul,” documentary by The Aquino Foundation, 2001. 16 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.”


Detention was an effective way to silence the dictator’s enemies. But some of those

detained became firmer and made a new meaning for the word heroism.

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-70’s 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 weren’t 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

cruelty”22 using more than one of the torture techniques listed below. Brace yourselves, for

these cruelties shouldn’t be inflicted on anyone, not even on animals.

19 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.


Electric Shock—one of the frequently used techniques. 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 Bridge—the 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 Serum—administered at the V. Luna General Hospital. It made Lacaba “talk

drunkenly.”

Russian Roulette—the 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.

Beating—another favorite technique where a group of soldiers would beat with “fists, kicks

and karate blows”23 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-Whipping—beating with rifle butts; one of the techniques endured by Reynaldo

Guillermo, Roberto Sunga, Joseph Gatus and Nathan Quimpo.

23 Ibid, p. 89.


Water Cure—another favorite technique. Huge amounts of water would be forced through

into the victim’s mouth, and by beating would be forced out. This was applied to Guillermo

Ponce de Leon, Alfonso Abzagado and Andrew Ocampo.

Strangulation—Done by hand, electric wire and steel bar to Carlos Centenera, and for two

months his speech was impaired. Others who claimed to be strangulated were Willie

Tatanis and Juan Villegas.

Cigar Burns—bonus you would get under torture. Received by Marcelino Tolam, Jr. and

Philip Limjoco.

Pepper Torture—Meynardo Espeleta’s bonus was a “concentrated peppery substance

placed on his lips and genitals.”24

Animal Treatment—victims 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 Inductivo,

despite his old age, was mercilessly slapped and electrocuted under torture.

Two more cases illustrate cruelty at its worst.

24 Ibid, p. 104. 25 Ibid, p. 110. 26 Ibid, pp. 110-112.


Peter Villaseñor 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 newspaper’s 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

didn’t believe the torture exclaimed, “My God!” when he was shown marks on Ocampo’s

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. They must have thought of

27 “Karinyo Militar,” 28 Aquino, Jr., p. 100. 29 Ibid, p. 109.


themselves as gods playing with human life. 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 José 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. His torturers only stopped when she

pretended to be dying. 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 Ibid, p. 97. 31 “Karinyo Militar.”


I can bear physical torture.” 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 wasn’t 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

“people [were] walking around like zombies.” She confirmed the existence of a building

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 husband’s 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. She

suffered this for twenty-five days.36

32 Ibid. Claimants named so after Presidential Proclamation 1081: Martial Law. 33 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.


Lualhati Roque, twenty-five years old, was “sexually abused and tortured” by constabulary

elements. Despite her rheumatic heart ailment, she wasn’t 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

husband’s 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 Ibid, p. 102. 38 Ibid, p. 104. 39 dela Cruz, p. 4.


VII. Desaparecidos: They Never Came Home

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 doesn’t 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 Imelda’s 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

40 Patterson, p. 317. 41 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.


testimony for Galman disappeared, his wife Lina Lazaro, his mistress Anna Oliva and her

sister Catherine, and Galman’s best friend and neighbor Rogelio Taruc.44

In this kind of case, it’s the victim’s 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 Tibo’s 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 couldn’t 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 couldn’t 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. The military claimed she committed suicide by drinking

muriatic acid. But the autopsy said otherwise. Her mouth became an ashtray full of

44 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.”


cigarette wounds. Her mother recounted how much Lily’s 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 military’s 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 People’s 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 didn’t 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 military’s 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 “Anak ng Bayan,” documentary by ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, 13 June 1999. 48 Ibid. 49 Rempel, p. 201. 50 Patterson, p. 328. 51 Charles C. McDougald, The Marcos File (San Francisco: San Francisco Publishers, 1987), pp. 151-152. 52 Ibid, p. 153.


Marcos’s proposal of the Chico River Dam Project angered the tribes in Mt. Province and

Kalinga whose ancestral lands would be affected. They fought, despite the soldiers’

threatening guns, and won. The price of victory: 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 Marcos’s disrespect to tribal land and

tradition, and the military’s 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 Malanes, p. 16. 54 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.


“Every week, someone we knew was being buried.”57 The community receives the fear.

The family bears the pain. 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 wouldn’t 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 Marcos’s public pronouncements, we can assume he didn’t 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 dela Cruz, p. 4. 58 “Lakas Sambayanan,” documentary by the Foundation For World Wide People Power, February 2002. 59 Aquino, Jr., p. 117.


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

Marcos claimed that they didn’t 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 don’t assume responsibility because they were just “following

orders.”62

So who would answer for all these brutalities? Military officers and men who committed

human rights violations are responsible because they abused their authority. Their

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 shouldn’t 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 “Sandaan,” commemorative album for the Philippine Centennial by Universal Records, 1998. 61 “Batas Militar.” 62 Ibid. 63 “I thought Martial Law was named after Marcial Lo,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 21 September 1999, p. 16.


Filipinos hurting and killing fellow Filipinos, indeed, martial law brought us shame, not only

amongst ourselves, but also with the world. Yet, we shouldn’t forget the brutalities.

Rather, it is our duty to remember and to tell the young what really happened during the

dictatorship. It’s sad that most teenagers now are unaware of our country’s past. It’s

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


SOURCES CITED: “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. Makati: Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Foundation, Inc, 1984. Baron, Cynthia S. and Melba M. Suazo. Nine Letters: The Story of the 1986 Filipino Revolution. Quezon City: Gerardo P. Baron, 1986. 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.” Reported by Jing Magsaysay in The Correspondents. ABS-CBN, 20 September l999. “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. Introduction by Francisco S. Tatad. Manila: Dept. of Public Information, 1975. McDougald, Charles C. The Marcos File. San Francisco: San Francisco Publishers, 1987. “Ninoy: The Heart And The Soul.” Documentary by The Aquino Foundation, 2001. Pedrosa, Carmen Navarro. The Rise and Fall of Imelda Marcos. Manila: Bookmark, 1987. __________. The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos. Manila: Bookmark, 1969.


Paterson, James Hamilton. America’s Boy: The Marcoses And The Philippines. London: Granta Books, 1998. Rempel, Willian C. Delusions Of A Dictator: The Mind Of Marcos As Revealed in His Secret Diaries. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. Reports Of The Fact-Finding Board On The Assasination Of Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Makati: Mr.&Ms. Publishing Co., 1984. Rosales, Etta. “Face Off,” The Philippine Star, 3 March 1947. “Sa Ikauunlad Ng Bayan….” Episode 10 of Siglo: Isandaang Taong Pamana, Communications Channel, Inc., September 1998. “Sandaan,” commemorative album for the Philippine Centennial by Universal Records, 1998. Yap, Miguela-Gonzales. The Making of Cory. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1987. Zich, Arthur. “Hope And Danger in the Philippines,” National Geographic (July 1986): pp. 76-117.

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