The dictatorship of 10th Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s is historically remembered for its record of human rights abuses, [1] [2] particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, [3] journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against his dictatorship. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities, [4] historians believe that the Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, [4] 35,000 documented tortures, 737 'disappeared', [4] and 70,000 incarcerations. [5] [6]
Some 2,520 of the 3,257 murder victims were tortured and mutilated before their bodies were dumped in various places for the public to discover - a tactic meant to sow fear among the public, [5] [7] which came to be known as "salvaging". [8] Some victims were also subjected to cannibalism. [9]
The implementation of Martial Law in September 1972 began with a wave of arrests, targeting anyone who opposed Marcos. This included students, opposition politicians, journalists, academics, and even religious workers, aside from known activists. Those who were captured were referred to as "political detainees," rather than "political prisoners," with the technical definitions of the former being vague enough that the Marcos administration could continue to hold them in detention without having to be charged. [10]
Victims were raided and arrested in their own homes without warrants, [11] and illegally detained without charges or clear information about the status of their case. [12] Arrest, Search and Seizure Orders (ASSO) did not undergo its usual bureaucratic process and at times were merely lists of people to be arrested. [6] Because of the lack of prior investigation, military men could insert names in the list of people to be arrested. [13] [6]
Torture was instrumental in the Martial Law rule. Young officers, some of them freshly graduated from the military academy, participated in the torture of political dissidents, suspected communists. The ‘top two’ torturers, Col. Rolando Abadilla and Lt. Rodolfo Aguinaldo were allegedly trained by CIA operatives in the United States. [14] [7] Various torture methods had physical, psychological, and sexual natures, many of them meant to degrade the victim. Even dissenters from high-level government officers, such as Sen. Ninoy Aquino and Sen. Ramon Mitra were detained and tortured with solitary confinement. Torture methods were used by the military to threaten, interrogate, or simply hurt detainees, [7] as most of them released without being charged of anything. [6] Many of the ‘salvaged’ bodies dumped in public view bore intense torture marks, instilling fear about what happens to those who oppose the Marcos regime. [15]
Aside from the murder of particular people who opposed the Marcos dictatorship, groups of people were also murdered for collectively mobilizing against the regime. Despite the lifting of Martial Law in 1981, there were five recorded massacres all over the Philippines in the same year alone. Between 1981 and 1982, and there have been 14 recorded massacres, totaling 134 fatalities. [35]
Some civilian massacres include the following.
The Moro people, belonging to the 14 or so indigenous communities in Mindanao whose populations are mostly Muslim, were specifically targeted by Marcos's forces. The Marcos regime had started to kill hundreds of Moros even before the imposition of Martial Law in 1972. [41] Thousands of Moro Muslims were killed during the Marcos regime, prompting them to form insurgent groups and separatist movements such as the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which became more radical with time due to atrocities against Muslims. [42]
According to the Marjanie Salic Macasalong's study The Liberation Movements in Mindanao: Root Causes and Prospects for Peace, the number of Moro victims killed by the Army, Philippine Constabulary, and the Ilaga (a notorious government-sanctioned [43] terrorist cult known for cannibalism and land grabbing that served as members of the CHDF) [35] reached as high as 10,000 lives. [44]
Some of these massacres include:
Although various human rights abuses were attributed units throughout the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) during the Marcos dictatorship, the units which became particularly notorious for regularly violating human rights abuses were the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) [6] under B.Gen Ignacio Paz; the Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (MISG) under the command of Col. Rolando Abadilla, [49] and the 5th Constabulary Security Unit (5CSU) under the command of Lt. Miguel Aure. [7] An officer of the 5CSU, 1Lt Rodolfo Aguinaldo, eventually became one of the most notorious torturers of the Marcos regime. [7]
The 5CSU and MISG were parts of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) under then-Major General Fidel V. Ramos, [5] a distant relative of Marcos. Both Paz and Ramos answered to Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, [5] who was also a Marcos relative. Aside from human rights abuses, these units also hounded media entities, [50] [51] corporate management, [52] and opposition groups [53] with threats, intimidation, and violence.
The PC and ISAFP were also aided in these activities by the Presidential Security Unit and the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), headed by Gen. Fabian Ver. [54]
The irregular paramilitary forces known as the Civilian Home Defense Forces (CHDF) were supervised and deployed by the heads of the local government in the Philippines such as provincial governors, city and municipal mayors. These paramilitary forces became notorious for various human rights abuses. [55]
The international community eventually got word of these human rights violations and applied pressure to the Marcos dictatorship to end them. In 1975, Marcos aide and chief propagandist Primitivo Mijares defected from the Marcos dictatorship and revealed in front of US lawmakers that torture was routinely practiced within the Marcos regime. [56] Mijares' admission attracted international criticism, particularly from Amnesty International and Washington. Amnesty International's first report about the Philippines in December 1975 revealed the “systematic and severe torture” handled by the Fifth Constabulary Security Unit (5CSU). [5] [7] Amnesty International found convincing evidence of widespread torture among prisoners, enabled by Marcos's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and the absence of judicial oversight. [57] Evidence reveals that not only was he aware of tortures and murders enacted by his military and police force, but that he was condoned and at times arranged for it. [6] This caused tensions between the United States and the Philippines, pressuring Marcos to admit human rights violations during his regime. [7]
Marcos initially denied knowledge of human rights violations. [6] In 1974, he proclaimed in a televised address that “No one, but no one was tortured”. [58] But he eventually confessed at the 1977 World Peace through law Conference in Manila that “there have been, to our lasting regret, a number of violations of the rights of detainees”. [39]
Republic Act (R.A.) No. 10368 was passed by Congress in 2013 to provide reparations and recognition to victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime. [59] It allocated PHP10 billion from Marcos's ill-gotten wealth to distribute to human rights victims. It also set up a Human Rights Violations Claims Board to facilitate distribution. [60]
R.A. 10368 also created the Human Rights Violations Victims' Memorial Commission "to establish, restore, preserve and conserve a Memorial Museum, Library, Archive and Compendium in honor of the human rights violation victims (HRVVs) during the Marcos regime". [61]
Ferdinand Marcos has denied all allegations of his involvement in any human rights extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary arrests which were made towards human right violations which occurred during his presidency. [62]
On the stories of human rights abuses, Bongbong Marcos describes them as "self-serving statements by politicians, self-aggrandizement narratives, pompous declarations, and political posturing and propaganda." [63] [64]
His older sister, Imee, denies that their family is responsible for the human rights abuses that occurred during her family's regime and called them political accusations. According to her, "If what is demanded is an admission of guilt, I don't think that's possible. Why would we admit to something we did not do?" [65]
The Bantayog ng mga Bayani, sometimes simply referred to as the Bantayog, is a monument, museum, and historical research center in Quezon City, Philippines, which honors the martyrs and heroes of the struggle against the dictatorship of the 10th Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos.
Student activism in the Philippines from 1965 to 1972 played a key role in the events which led to Ferdinand Marcos' declaration of Martial Law in 1972, and the Marcos regime's eventual downfall during the events of the People Power Revolution of 1986.
Liliosa Rapi Hilao was a Filipina student activist who was killed while under government detention during Martial Law in the Philippines, and is remembered as the first prisoner to die in detention during martial law in the Philippines. She was a student of Communication Arts at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
The Southern Tagalog 10 was a group of activists abducted and "disappeared" in 1977 during martial law in the Philippines under Proclamation No. 1081 issued by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Of the 10 university students and professors who were abducted, only three, Virgilio Silva, Salvador Panganiban, and Modesto Sison, "surfaced" later after being killed by suspected agents of the state. Two of those who surfaced were apparently summarily executed. The rest were never found.
The Bulacan Martyrs of 1982 was a group of young activists who worked together to oppose the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship and restore democracy in the Philippines. They were meeting at a farmer's residence on June 21, 1982, when the house was raided by 30 armed soldiers from the 175th Philippine Constabulary (PC) Company. They were arrested and were found dead the following day in another town 20 kilometers away.
Lourdes "Chit" Panganiban Estella-Simbulan was a Filipino journalist and professor, known for her critical writings on government repression, abuse, corruption and human rights violations.
Benjamín Roberto "Behn" Holcombe Cervantes was a Filipino artist and activist. He was highly regarded as a theater pioneer, teacher, and progressive thinker who was detained multiple times during martial law in the Philippines.
Tullio Favali was an Italian priest who ministered in Zamboanga, North Cotabato and Metro Manila in the Philippines. He was the first foreign missionary to be murdered by paramilitary forces during Martial Law, provoking public outcry from the Vatican and Italian government. His death caused international attention to human rights violations and abuses to paramilitary forces during the Marcos dictatorship.
Religious sector opposition against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos included leaders and workers belonging to different beliefs and denominations.
During the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino workers in the labor industry experienced the effects of government corruption, crony capitalism, and cheap labor for foreign transnational industries, One of the objectives of Martial Law was to cheapen labor costs, in order to attract transnational corporations to export labor to the Philippines. Marcos signed many presidential decrees beneficial only to his associates, while allowing for the forced relocation of indigenous peoples, decreasing workers' wages, and murders of labor activists. Minimum wage was a fixed PHP8.00 per day. Many workers were unemployed or underemployed. It was also during the Marcos presidency when the practice of contractualization began, enabling managements to avoid giving regular, permanent status to employees after six months of work. Strikes were banned and the government controlled trade unions, leaving workers without effective protection against employers who had unfair labor practices and regulations.
Alexander "Alex" Orcullo was a Filipino journalist, community leader, and activist known for speaking against the abuses of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, and for being a seminal figure of the protest movement against the Marcos dictatorship in Mindanao, Philippines.
Nestor Labastilla Principe, also called "Ka Wadi" was a Filipino activist, writer, and martial arts instructor best known for his student activism at the Lyceum of the Philippines, his community mobilization work among the poor communities of Manila's port ara, and for his martyrdom on May 7, 1973, when he was killed and beheaded by elements of the Philippine Constabulary during Ferdinand Marcos' Martial Law regime.
Captain Danilo Poblete Vizmanos, PN, Ret. was a Filipino activist and retired captain of the Philippine Navy. He is best known for his resistance against the Martial Law regime of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. On November 30, 2016, Vizmanos' name was engraved on the Wall of Remembrance of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes who fought against the Marcos dictatorship.
Armando "Mandrake" Ducusin Palabay was a Filipino student leader and activist from San Fernando, La Union. He is best known for his work in organizing anti-Marcos campaigns during the first quarter storm and the early days of Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. He was killed for the anti-Marcos cause while doing community work among the indigenous Tingguian people of Sallapadan, Abra, in 1974, and was honored in 2001 by having his name inscribed on the Wall of the Remembrance at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani, which honors the martyrs and heroes who fought the dictatorship.
The Daet massacre, which took place on June 14, 1981, in Daet, Camarines Norte, resulted in four people dying on the spot, with at least 50 others injured when forces of Ferdinand Marcos' administration opened fire on protesters marching to demand an increase in copra prices, and to denounce "fake elections" and the Coco Levy Fund scam. The Daet massacre is particularly noted for happening shortly after Proclamation No. 2045 was issued in January 1981, supposedly lifting Martial Law on the Philippines.
Jacobo Sybico Amatong was a Filipino lawyer, politician, and newspaper publisher from the province of Zamboanga del Norte. He was best known for founding the Mindanao Observer, a community newspaper which became well-known for criticizing the martial law administration of Ferdinand Marcos, and for being assassinated by uniformed soldiers on September 24, 1984.
Indigenous people’s resistance against the Marcos dictatorship varied from case to case among the various indigenous peoples of the Philippines. The most documented cases are the various resistance movements towards the Marcos administration’s appropriation of indigenous lands, particularly in the case of the Chico River Dam Project and the Manila Water Supply III project on the Kaliwa River watershed, and the birth of the various separatist groups and their coalescing into the Moro conflict in the wake of news about the Jabidah Massacre.
Camp Vicente Lim is a facility of the Philippine National Police located in Barangay Mayapa in the city of Calamba, Laguna, which currently serves as the regional headquarters of the PNP in Calabarzon. It has played a significant part in the local history of the Calabarzon region, as well as the national history of the Philippines; it was part of the Calamba Airstrip during the Philippines' American Colonial era, and was occupied by the Japanese during World War II although it is not recorded as having been used for military purposes during the war. It later became a facility of the Philippines' integrated local police forces, hosting the Integrated National Police Training Command. During Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos, Camp Vicente Lim was one of the four provincial camps to be designated a Regional Command for Detainees (RECAD). It was designated RECAD I and it housed thousands of political detainees from the Southern Tagalog and Bicol regions.
Jesus Antonio Matamorosa Carpio was a Filipino lawyer, journalist, educator, author, and army officer best known for his term as director of the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation from 1986 to 1989, and for his earlier work in resisting the authoritarian rule of Ferdinand Marcos - first as a radio commentator prior to the declaration of Martial Law, and then later as the Regional Coordinator for Bicol of the Free Legal Assistance Group; which provided legal support to the regime's political detainees.
Historians estimate that there were about 70,000 individuals incarcerated by the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos in the period between his 1972 declaration of Martial Law until he was removed from office by the 1986 People Power Revolution. This included students, opposition politicians, journalists, academics, and religious workers, aside from known activists. Those who were captured were referred to as "political detainees," rather than "political prisoners," with the technical definitions of the former being vague enough that the Marcos administration could continue to hold them in detention without having to be charged.
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