The Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity, and Nationalism, better known by its acronym "MABINI", [1] [2] [3] was a human rights lawyers' organization which worked on countering varied abuses against human rights and civil liberties during the Marcos dictatorship. [4] [5] [6]
After Marcos was deposed by the civilian-led 1986 People Power revolution, numerous members of MABINI joined the government to promote their advocacies, including Rene Saguisag, who became a senator; Fulgencio Factoran, who became Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Joker Arroyo, who became Executive Secretary and later also became a senator; Jejomar Binay, who became Mayor of Makati and eventually became Vice President of the Philippines; and Augusto “Bobbit” Sanchez, who became Labor secretary. [1] [3] [7] Others, like labor lawyer William Chua, remained in private law practice, but continued to pursue various public interest cases. [8]
Sanchez and Chua were posthumously honored at the Philippines' Bantayog ng mga Bayani Memorial, which honors the martyrs and heroes who resisted the abuses of Ferdinand Marcos' authoritarian regime. [7] [8]
Rene Augusto Verceluz Saguisag was a Filipino lawyer and politician. He served as a Senator from 1987 until 1992.
Horacio "Boy" Morales, Jr. was a Filipino economist and politician. A prominent figure in the underground left during the martial law rule of President Ferdinand Marcos, he later served as Secretary of Agrarian Reform during the presidency of Joseph Estrada.
The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) is a nationwide organization of human rights lawyers in the Philippines. It was founded in 1974 by Sen. Jose W. Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, J.B.L. Reyes, and Joker Arroyo during the martial law era under former President Ferdinand Marcos. It is the first and largest group of human rights lawyers established in the nation. They work on countering varied abuses against human rights and civil liberties. Its current chairman since 2003 is human rights attorney Chel Diokno, the founding dean of the De La Salle University Tañada-Diokno School of Law.
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.
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.
Rizalina "Lina" Parabuac Ilagan was an anti-martial law activist who belonged to a network of community organizations in the Southern Tagalog region in the Philippines.
Antonio Maria "Tony" Onrubia Nieva was a Filipino journalist, union organizer, and activist. He worked to defend press freedom and the rights of workers, and campaigned to end authoritarian rule in the Philippines. He led the National Press Club as president and founded the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. He was secretary general of the International Organization of Journalists based in Prague, Czech Republic, from 1995 up to the time of his death in 1997. His name is on the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Wall of Remembrance, for his contributions to the fight against injustices of the dictatorship under President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
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.
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.
Rogelio Concepcion Morales was a Filipino master mariner, educator, Navy captain, and activist best known for his role in the transformation of the Nautical School of the Philippines/Philippine Nautical School into the modern-day Philippine Merchant Marine Academy, and for his activism to promote the rights of Filipino seafarers, which led him to become the president of various advocacy societies and unions through the 1950s and 1960s, and to become founder of the Concerned Seamen of the Philippines (CSP) in 1983.
Rev. Magnifico Libre Osorio was a Filipino Methodist Pastor and human rights advocate best known for championing the rights of Indigenous people in the province of Palawan and his murder during the waning days of Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship in the Philippines. He was not known to have political affiliations nor leanings, but his humanitarian work and the circumstances of his murder have led him to be considered a martyr of the resistance against the dictatorship, and his name is inscribed on the Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.
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.
David Triunfante Bueno was a Filipino human rights lawyer and radio show host from Ilocos Norte, best known his work as the most prominent human rights lawyer in Ilocos Norte during the later part of the Marcos administration and the early part of the succeeding Aquino administration. He was a member of the prestigious group called the Free Legal Assistance Group or FLAG, the oldest and largest group of human rights lawyers in the country.
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.
Romraflo R. Taojo was a Filipino labor and human rights lawyer, activist, and educator best known for his work with the Free Legal Assistance Group, where he pursued human rights cases against military personnel who were implicated in torture cases. He was killed on April 2, 1985, when unidentified gunman entered his apartment in Tagum, Davao Del Norte, and shot him five times in the eyes and mouth. The gunmen were believed to be part of a paramilitary group acting on orders from the military.
Maria Leticia Quintina Jimenez Pascual-Ladlad, also known by her nickname Tish, was a student journalist at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) during the Marcos dictatorship, known for being the first woman editor-in-chief of the Aggie Green and Gold, for her community organizing work among farmers in Laguna and Quezon, and for being the first UPLB student to become a desaparecido during the Martial Law regime.
Sedfrey Andres Ordoñez was a Filipino lawyer, government official, academic, linguist, and poet. He was the delegate of his home province of Nueva Ecija to the Philippine Constitutional Convention of 1971.
Paula Carolina Guevara Santos Malay, often nicknamed "Ayi", was a Filipino writer and human rights advocate best known for her years of resistance against the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos, and for various works of which "Nasa Puso ang Amerika," a Filipino language translation of Carlos Bulosan's America is in the Heart. She was married to journalist and activist Armando Malay Sr., with whom she had three children - Armando "Badi" Malay Jr., Carolina "Bobbie" Malay Ocampo, and Ricardo "Dick" Malay - all became prominent activists, writers, and academics in their own right.