[Philippine's human rights violations] Martial Law Diaries, and other papers [corruption in the Philippines] #2/218

While the victims have yet to receive justice, the oppressors and culprits are still very much around and planning a comeback and revival of the long dark night of terror.

“Martial Law Diary” is not a personal diary in the conventional sense. Except for some entries of a personal nature, almost all its pages are devoted to accounts, observations and comments on significant happenings during the early and critical stage of martial rule.

There are also entries on the people’s struggle in other countries. This is because the struggle of the Filipino people against domestic fascism and US imperialism during this critical period was not an isolated case but part of a worldwide people’s struggle for national liberation, economic emancipation and self-determination.

This diary may therefore be regarded as a source reference for political and social education and enlightenment. It covers the critical period of 1973 and part of 1974 when the dictatorship exercised absolute power over the life and survival of every Filipino. These were the days when henchmen and agents of the regime had license to kill and commit the most heinous crimes against anybody tagged as an “enemy of the state.”

There were then no human rights organizations in the country. Under conditions of martial law the term “human rights” was considered subversive and inimical to the regime.

It was a period of betrayal of the people by an armed forces that allowed itself to be used as an oppressive instrument of the dictatorship to intimidate, threaten and instill fear among the people with impunity. A moment of history when most Filipinos behaved like sheep except those who had the courage to fight for principles and a cause.

“Other papers” refer to the author’s collection of writings on issues of national significance from pre-martial law days to the present. These papers are in the form of articles, commentaries and “letters to the editor,” most of which have been published in the press.

Some readers may question my bias against the dictatorship and the New Society and ask, “Was there nothing good that Marcos did for the nation?” I believe that whatever “good” that Marcos did during his dictatorship was not out of altruism but for narrow and despicable self-serving ends.