By Diego Mora
On Sept. 11, 2024, scores of martial law survivors who fought and won the class suit against Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his estate in Hawaii, along with activists belonging to the Kabataan party list and lawyers who slammed the $150-million settlement sought by the Marcoses in exchange for the dropping of all their cases, met at the offices of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Quezon City to renew their pledge never to forget martial law and resist its reimposition now and in the future.
The forum, entitled “Historical Distortion: Preserving the Truth About Martial Law,” came as the Marcoses sponsored a concert to celebrate the 107th birth anniversary of the dictator who ruled with an iron fist from 1972 to 1986 and masterminded the country’s economic deterioration, with average economic growth during that period at 1.5%, and the country unable to pay its foreign debt from 1983 after the assassination of former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and pleaded for debt moratorium in 1985.
Sponsored by the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA), which was organized on Nov. 18, 2916 after Rodrigo Duterte buried the remains of Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the Samahan ng mga Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), which spearheaded the Hawaii class suit, the Movement Against Tyranny (MAT) and Ugnayan ng mga Makabayang Guro sa Ateneo (Umaga), the participants heard Adora Faye de Vera, arrested thrice and tortured during martial law and rearrested and charged criminally in 2022 under the Marcos Jr. administration but acquitted, lawyer and former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, a martial law victim himself, lawyer Renee Co, former UP student regent and the national executive vice president of Kabataan party list and Ateneo de Manila University Prof. Oliver John Quintana, coordinator of the digital AdMU Martial Law Museum and Library.
Adora Faye de Vera kicked off the discussion by recalling the terror of martial law, her torture at the hands of Marcos intelligence officers who sought to break her. They did not succeed. De Vera would proceed with her work among the marginalized and noted how the people protested the Daet massacre and demanded justice. She was amazed at how the people protected her everywhere she worked, proof that they will support those who struggle on the correct side of history. De Vera said our memory of martial law should not be as black as a dark night as there were high noons in organizing communities, imbuing with them with a higher sense of duty as they battled landlords, local despots and militarization.
Colmenares narrated how he, the late Atty, Romeo Capulong and the late Karapatan founder Marie Hilao Enriquez argued before the Hawaii court against the $150-million settlement offer by the Marcos Estate to settle the award for the 9,539 class members. They condemned the settlement’s provision that calls for absolving the Marcoses of all their crimes in exchange for $150-million, arguing that such provision subverts the court’s findings. It was particularly heartbreaking for Marie, whose sister Liliosa Hilao was murdered by Marcos minions, and who worked with the late broadcaster and lawyer Jose Mari Velez to initiate the class suit. US lawyer Robert Swift sought a deal but never quite understood that absolving the Marcoses was like throwing away their bloody record down the sewers. Colmenares also stressed the enactment of the law mandating compensation for martial law victims was also a struggle, with several bills filed subjected to laser-focused scrutiny by lawmakers who wanted absolute proof of torture, physical or psychological, and unassailable record of imprisonment. Through their efforts, Colmenares and the Makabayan lawmakers had the law approved, with senators saying it was a good law to make amends for the bloody abuses of the Marcos martial law regime.
Atty. Renee Co of Kabataan party list acknowledged that battling lies and historical distortions in social media is a herculean task, particularly now that the Marcoses, aided by the Dutertes earlier, sought to rewrite textbooks, with Sara Zimmermann Duterte Carpio, now out of the Department of Education (DepeD) doing her worst to bowdlerize textbooks by erasing any reference to “Marcos martial law” and saying it was simply “martial law,” prompting CARMMA leader Boni Ilagan to say “san ka nakakita ng martial law na wala ang pangalan ng diktador?” Sara is a stable genius. Co recalled the many campaigns waged by Kabataan to correct the lies disseminated by Marcos and Duterte trolls and crones (the female counterparts of trolls) from 2016 this very day. She noted the continuing battle to erase the snopaked martial law history promoted by Bongbong, Imee and their spawn even as Kabataan pursues its campaign to oppose policies and legislation against the interests of youth and students. Co stressed that Kabataan won free tertiary education in state universities and colleges (SUCs) even as it confronts harassment by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the insistence of the military to destroy academic freedom through the University of the Philippines-Armed Forces of the Philippines (UP-AFP) Agreement on Cooperation that UP President Angelo Jimenez signed on the sly.
Prof. Oliver Quintana introduced the AdMU Martial Law Museum and Library during the forum, saying it is one digital museum and library that stores published materials relating to Marcos martial law, including copies of national dailies, books, videos and pamphlets, films, magazines and a sizable collection of publications from revolutionary organizations. Quintana argued that the museum and library is open to collect more materials and invited the participants to contribute their stories about martial law. He said the materials at hand will be helpful to teachers who are duty-bound to tell the truth about the period from 1972 to 1986 and teachers from the primary schools and high schools can the library’s materials to prepare their lesson plans. Co added that lies have short legs and the best way to counter disinformation is by pushing the truth in any venue, channel or format. The Kabataan party list is already an army of truth warriors besieging the ramparts of paid trolls and crones, as well as the Marcos bureaucracy. With Selda, MAT, CARMMA and Umaga by its side, the truth will continue to march on###