To the Marcos apologists
by Sophia Eugenio
You can rewrite history, but you can never change its facts.
On September 21, 1972, late president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos signed into law Proclamation No. 1081, which placed the entirety of the Philippines under martial law.
A time of grave human rights abuses, this notorious 14-year period in Philippine history has killed 3,240, imprisoned 70,000, and tortured 34,000, as reported by Amnesty International Numbers. These are not just mere statistics, these are real lives.
For 14 years, the Filipino people have dealt with fear, loss, and abuse from a dictator, murderer, and plunderer. 49 years later, history is seen repeating itself.
The perils of an autocratic government are spurred by the spread of disinformation, inadequacy of education, and the overwhelming influence of social media and fake news. The whitewashing and revision of the atrocities of the Marcos regime have served to distort a past that has amassed international attention for wide-scale human rights violations — a past that is real, a past that is lived by martial law victims and survivors, and a past that is looming to come into the present once again.
Your involvement in the falsehood of this reality perpetuates the continuity of a political agenda that seeks to erase the factual and proven effects of the Marcos regime — at the expense of the lives of Filipinos who perished and suffered under the hands of a dictator. As part of a generation who did not experience these atrocities firsthand, your indifference to those who had reflects your consent for the outright revision of our history.
History remains as the most revered authority. The integrity of this dark period in Philippine history rests in the hands of those who pursue the noble upholding of the truth.
On the 49th anniversary of the Declaration of Martial Law, we implore the truth to prevail, and that starts with you.
To this, we say: Marcos is not a hero.
Never forget. Never again.
