Life during the Martial Law era: part 1

The darkness falls.

The first inkling many people had that something definitely was amiss that morning was the eerie silence of the airwaves. For the first time since the last world war, the radios were silent; it crackled with neither the sound of music nor that of human voice, but rather, of a ghostly, unemotional hiss of static. It was as if Manila’s still sleepy inhabitants woke up to a city seemingly frozen in time.

Even in those early years of the seventies, a full decade prior to the advent of cable news and entertainment services --- and years before CNN became a byword --- Manila’s airwaves was already a busy tangled web of electronic transmissions (AM was king then) what with its hodgepodge of radio stations and four, if I recall it right, television stations that broadcast a steady stream of daily news and assorted programming during the day.

The all too sudden disappearance of familiar faces and voices from both mediums was, for lack of a better word, unnerving to anyone so used to being bombarded with news from the past day’s events. More disconcerting than the silence of the radios, however, was that those bastions of free speech, the newspapers --- especially those that made it their life’s work criticizing the powers-that-be --- were suspiciously absent on the stands. It was a clear sign that things weren’t as normal as it should be, at least, not in this part of the world.

Far from becoming a ghost town, Manila was abuzz with life, as people went about their daily lives unperturbed --- only to slowly realize that everything was indeed strangely different from what it was yesterday. Maybe it was the sudden appearance of armed soldiers in the once neutral streets of the city, or perhaps it was the absence of the many things that people have gotten used to and have taken for granted all those years that made many wonder what in heavens was going on; because along with the broadcasts and ubiquitous dailies, gone too were the daily rallies and protests that was becoming synonymous to the incumbent’s administration.

Students went to classes that early morning only to find that the schools were closed, as were the government offices and buildings that dot the city’s landscapes. It was different for the private sector though, as it was business as usual for the millions of wage earners on their way to work, but even that was mere cosmetic, because underneath their seemingly normal everyday routine lie feelings of uncertainty. The people were perplexed and, like the many that have religiously followed the slowly building political turmoil were anxious and began asking among themselves, “Is this finally it?”

And indeed, it was IT.

On the early morning of Sept. 21, 1972, then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, after having secretly signed Proclamation 1081, declared martial rule as a response to the growing threat to his presidency. But it wasn’t until later that day when Marcos came on the air on the government-run television station and radio when everything finally became clear to the Filipino people --- Martial Law had been officially declared.

Using the threat of "Communist terrorism" as well as a host of other threats (imagined or not) against national security as an excuse, Marcos ordered the military and the police to arrest and detain all those that he perceived to be enemies of the state; “enemies” that included civil rights advocates, activists, the entire political opposition, newspaper editors, publishers and journalists. Sparing none but the chosen few, anyone who had been critical of his administration was fair game.

Even the once powerful Congress and Senate were silenced, their buildings padlocked indefinitely; and the Constitution --- in effect since 1935 --- was suspended. Civil rights, civil law and habeas corpus as well were suspended and press freedom curtailed. What’s more, the military can now arrest or detain anyone with impunity and without so much as a warrant. All that --- and with curfew now in effect --- meant that the military, under the command of their commander-in-chief (who, in this case, was Marcos), was now in full control of the entire nation.

For the ordinary Juan dela Cruz, the quickly unfolding events came both as a surprise and shock. Nobody, least of all, the average man on the street, had expected this bold move on the part of Marcos to gain absolute power. It was, after all, an act unheard of in a fully functioning democratic society; and except for the daily protests from the restless students, there never was any imminent danger from the communist rebels who then numbered only mere hundreds at its greatest strength. Nobody, save for one man who, for several months prior to martial law, had warned the public of the insidious plot --- dubbed as “Operation Sagittarius” --- by the president to silence the opposition and take full control of the archipelago. That lone voice in the wilderness was then Senator Benigno Aquino, the administration’s staunchest critic who would later find himself number one on Marcos’ hit list.

And so it was that for the next 14 years until he was deposed by the 1986 people power uprising, Marcos ruled with an iron hand as a dictator. With the backing of the military and his trusted comrades in the legislative body, he held an ever tightening grip on the country and its economy. Although it was said that Marcos started out with a genuine effort to uplift and improve the poor and ailing Juan dela Cruz’s lot through his vision of a “New Society” (Bagong Lipunan), he eventually fell prey to that old adage that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” as he used (as well as abused) his authoritarian powers to enrich himself, his family, friends and cronies.

That abuse of power extended beyond the massive looting of the country’s dwindling coffers, however, as numerous cases of human rights abuses increases steadily. During the years proclamation 1081 was in effect, it was estimated that almost 70,000 Filipinos were imprisoned without trial, a third of that number severely tortured, and more than 20,000 killed especially in Mindanao, while a sizable number were documented as missing as involuntary disappearances or desaperacidos.

Very much like their counterpart in South America --- particularly in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s rule --- the U.S. trained and equipped enforcers of martial rule detained, tortured, maimed, killed and made to disappear fellow Filipinos at the mere suspicion of being a communist sympathizer. Heading this network of government-sanctioned terror groups was the Armed Forces of the Philippines; the now-defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) which future president Fidel Ramos headed; the Criminal Investigation Service(CIS) and the dreaded Metrocom Intelligence Security Group, or the MISG.

Sadly, none of the perpetrators involved in the torture, maiming, killing or disappearances have been prosecuted nor sentenced up to this date. In fact, many of those involved were even promoted in the succeeding regimes. One became defense secretary after the EDSA revolution, another made his way into the highest office in the land, and yet another, whose former boss ran the dreaded military intelligence unit during martial law became a senator.

More than working for the common good of the country and its people as he envisioned it, Marcos’ “New Society” would instead bring about a culture of fear, resentment and distrust.

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