Dioknos to Enrile: Dad among arrested during martial law
MANILA, Philippines —The late Sen. Jose "Pepe" Diokno was among those arrested during martial law, his family said, contradicting a claim by former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that no Marcos critic was.
In a one-on-one conversation with former Sen. Bongbong Marcos recorded in an empty studio, Enrile claimed that no one was arrested for their political beliefs during martial law.
"Name me one person that was arrested because of political or religious belief during that period. None. Name me one person that was arrested simply because he criticized President Marcos. None," Enrile told the only son of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
"We name one: our father. In his nearly two years in prison, Dad was never interrogated and was never charged. The Supreme Court itself acknowledged Marcos's political motive for arresting Dad," the Diokno family said in a statement.
Diokno was among the first arrested when martial law was declared.
The family also decried Enrile's statement that "very few" were arrested and "inconvenienced for a while."
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The Dioknos pointed out that thousands of claimants of human rights violations belie the pronouncements of Enrile.
"Many detainees were not only imprisoned but tortured and some, forcibly disappeared. Are we now to take torture, forces disappearance, and loss of life as forms of 'inconvenience'?" the family said.
'Outright misrepresentation of facts'
It was also not true that the late senator did not want to be released as claimed by Enrile.
"The late Pepe Diokno didn't want to be released. I told him, 'Pepe, just sign anything and just get out of here!' I told him," Enrile said.
Diokno objected to the terms of the pledge of allegiance that he was being made to sign and not to his release itself, the family said.
The late senator objected to some of the phrases in the pledge:
...or perform any act in violation of Presidential Procalamtion No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, or the Decrees, General Orders, Letters of Istruction, or other rules and regulations promulgated pursuant thereto, and that I undertake to bring to the attention of the proper authorities any act or omission by any person which would violate this pledge.
"Dad then told Secretary Enrile that these phrases were against his conscience and he could not agree to them, so that he would sign the pledge only if he were allowed to strike out the quoted phrases to which he objected," the Diokno family said.
The family clarified that Enrile's interpretation of their father's objection was an outright misrepresentation of facts.
In his manifesation, Diokno also recalled that their temporary release prohibited them from giving any interview to local or foreign press and placed them under supervision of the military's intelligence service.
"As he told those present, 'while it was true during some portion of his detention, it was not true he had been treated fairly or humanely during the entire period of his detention," the statement read.
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