News Roundup 21 September 2022
Sep 21, 2022 • 8 min Read
Colmenares says PH needs more truth warriors to fight Marcos’ fabricated lies | INQUIRER.NET – In line with the 50th year commemoration of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s declaration of martial law, Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares on Wednesday called the new generation “truth warriors” in the fight against the manufactured lies of the Marcoses. “Our new generation serves as our truth warriors in the fight against Marcos’ manufactured lies. Hindi man nila naabutan ang martial law, they chose to critically analyze events and ‘inconvenient truths’ of the past,” Colmenares said in a statement. (Our new generation serves as truth warriors in the fight against Marcos’ manufactured lies. Although they were not there during the martial law, they chose to critically analyze past events and “inconvenient truths.”) “We will continue to be truth-tellers and we need more of our youth — the truth warriors to win the war against lies and injustice,” he added. Colmenares drew inspiration from the victims of martial law who are still fighting to tell the dark truth of Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship. The human-rights lawyer, activist, and former senatorial candidate was a victim of martial law who was arrested and tortured at the age of 18. In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Colmenares recalled how he was made to confess that he’s part of the New People’s Army (NPA) through torture and threats. “I was made to confess. Isulat ko raw na NPA ako. Hindi ako NPA… Tapos kapag hindi sila satisfied na hindi mo inamin, papakainin sa akin iyong papel na sinulatan ko,” Colmenares narrated. (I was made to confess. I should write that I’m an NPA. I’m not an NPA. Then if they are not satisfied with your confession, they would make you eat the paper you wrote in.) On the other hand, he also expressed his appreciation to younger generations for taking the courage to stand up for truth and fight oppression. “It is even heartening to note that despite the passage of time, more and more of the younger generations are taking up the cudgels and standing up for the truth, justice and democracy, while at the same time fiercely rejecting dictatorship, tyranny, fascism, and oppression,” he noted. Colmenares further said, “it’s easy to create lies in the time of social media, but the experiences of martial law victims won’t be erased in history even if they try to distort it.” “Sa panahon man noon ng Batas Militar, o sa panahon ngayon ng fake news at red-tagging, ang katotohanan ang ating palagiang liwanag. Facts are the basis of our truth and with it, we will never go astray,” he concluded. (Even during the time of martial law, or in the present with fake news and red-tagging, the truth is always our light. Facts are the basis of our truth and with it, we will never go astray.)
‘Move on’: The shallowness of calls to bury martial law memories | INQUIRER.NET – Move on. To people in a relationship, those words could mean letting go of a partner after years of abuse. It could mean a new partner, a new relationship or a new life. The scars left by the abuse, however, won’t disappear. Applied to an entire nation, the proposal to move on carries an entirely different weight especially if it meant forgetting plunder, state murders, abuses of basic rights, state suppression of freedoms or turning a blind eye on people’s sufferings. Move on. The comment seemed nonchalant, or even shallow, as made by two senators whose knowledge about martial law in the Philippines might have come vicariously. One was just about nine years old when martial law was declared. The other was just two. Move on, thus said senators Jinggoy Estrada, 59, and Robin Padilla, 52, when asked for their comments on the 50th anniversary of martial law, the only period in Philippine history when one man—Ferdinand Marcos—reigned for more than 20 years that changed Philippine politics forever. “What is there to apologize for?” said Estrada. “Let’s move on,” said the senator, whose father actor Joseph Estrada didn’t finish his term as president and was forced out of office by what is now known as People Power 2. According to Estrada, the strongest argument in favor of the nation moving on from martial law was the 31 million votes that the late dictator’s son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., had received in elections last May. According to Estrada, this was enough proof that the younger Marcos had nothing to say sorry for. Padilla, who had his own brushes with the law in the early years of his popularity as an actor, shared Estrada’s view. He said unless Filipinos let go of the bad memories of martial law, “we would not grow”, equating progress with the process of forgetting what historians said was the darkest chapter of Philippine history following the Second World War. “The Marcoses should apologize? Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is already the president. For me, let’s move on,” said Padilla, repeating a previous statement about the father’s sins not being his children’s. While Estrada said that victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship have the right to air grievances, it was actually up to Marcos Jr. to listen to these. In response to the remarks of Estrada and Padilla, Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said “only those who benefited and continue to benefit from the events 50 years ago seem to have a liking to ‘moving on’ from the horrors of the dictatorship.” This, as back in 2018, Sen. Imee Marcos, daughter of the late dictator, said that Filipinos criticizing her family should move on: “We don’t need to keep hating people for a very long time. It’s not our way. We just need to go forward.” Maria Ela Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said that it was wrong to ask Filipinos to move on and forget the horrors of the dictatorship. “There are still ongoing cases against the Marcoses and the damage they have done to the Philippines, supported by evidence, has not yet been repaired,” she told INQUIRER.net on Wednesday (Sept. 21). She said Estrada and Padilla make a “mockery of themselves because their words are blatant admission that they are not worthy of being a representative of the people under the 1987 Constitution.” “Remember that Congress was one of the institutions closed after the declaration of martial law and was replaced by the rubber stamp Batasang Pambansa,” she said. Looking back, Joanna Cariño, an indigenous people’s rights activist and a victim of martial law herself, told ANC last May that “it is difficult to move on while there is injustice.” “Justice has not been served. It is difficult to move on if they have not shown any remorse for the horrors of martial law,” she said.
Philippine activists vow to ‘never forget’ Marcos era abuses | PHILSTAR.COM – Philippine activists vowed Wednesday to “never forget” the human rights abuses under former dictator Ferdinand Marcos as they marked 50 years since his imposition of martial law. Amnesty International estimates thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands tortured and imprisoned after Marcos imposed martial law on September 21, 1972, unleashing security forces on rivals, critics and dissidents. “The Marcoses need to at least acknowledge their role in those dark days,” said Carlos Conde, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, as activists and victims marked the 50th anniversary of the start of martial law. “Without truth-telling, without the space for Filipinos to understand and accept what happened during martial law, we can never find closure, we can never move forward.” Half a century after the martial law began, 11,103 people have been officially recognised as victims of torture, killings, enforced disappearances and other abuses. They have been compensated with some of the wealth, estimated to be in the billions of dollars, stolen by Marcos and his wife Imelda. But human rights groups say there has never been a true reckoning of the abuses — or those responsible held to account. Marcos was toppled from power by a bloodless “people power” revolt in 1986 and the family was chased into exile. After the patriarch’s death in 1989, they returned to the Philippines and began a remarkable political comeback that culminated with Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s victory in the May 9 presidential election. His landslide win was helped by a massive online misinformation campaign that portrayed the Marcos clan in a positive light and whitewashed abuses and corruption during the dictatorship. Martial law victims and activists have described the Marcos regime as “one of the darkest periods” in the country’s history. They accuse Marcos Jr and his supporters of distorting the facts about martial law and falsely portraying it as a “golden age” for the Philippines. “There are young Filipinos who are interested in learning what really happened in spite of many others who were really blinded,” said former political prisoner Bonnie Ilagan, who spent two years in jail where he was repeatedly tortured. “The fight continues. We must never forget.”
