When Martial Law was declared 37 years ago!

Our special presentation on Straight from the Sky tonight we commemorate the beginning of one of the darkest years in our country. It is the 37th year of the declaration of Martial Law by then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos who transformed this democratic nation into a one-man rule. He threw democracy out the window supposedly, albeit ironically, to save democracy! But as history has shown, the real reason behind the declaration of Martial Law was to perpetuate himself and his family in power at the expense of our civil liberties. This is also in time for our celebration of Press Freedom Week!

In truth, it wasn’t easy to find people to talk about martial law days. I was only 21 years old and we were in the United States when Martial Law was declared. Yes, all those born on that date are already 37 years old. Luckily, I found friends from the media, Mr. Godofredo Roperos of SunStar Daily who used to work in the Press Office in Malacañang when Martial Law was declared and Mr. Emmanuel “Manny” de los Santos Rabacal of CCTN-TV 47 who was with ABS-CBN that was shut down on that very day. They will provide a contrasting view of what happened 37 years ago. Please watch this very interesting and historical show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm tonight.

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At least the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) listened to the pleas of the Cebu Business sector and has finally allowed five SuperFerry vessels of the Aboitiz Transport System (ATS) to resume operations. This was largely due to the fact that ATS was quick to fix whatever loose ends they had to fix on those vessels. But just the same, this lifting of the suspension of ATS goes a long way in assuring that the Philippine economy would no longer be affected because it is needed in our everyday commercial life.

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While today is a holiday because of the observance of the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan or the Eid al Fitr, those of you who are fast losing your memories should be reminded that this date was also a holiday during the dark years of the Marcos Dictatorship as the creators of the New Society or in Tagalog, the Kilusan ng Bagong Lipunan called this Thanksgiving Day. Naturally, if you were able to fool the Filipino people by declaring Martial Law and embracing a one-man rule, of course you’d truly be thankful that you succeeded in conning the ignorant Filipino people, that they actually lost their civil liberties because of Martial Law.

Martial Law lasted so long for a total of 14 years from 1972 to 1986. Why? Because the Filipino people really has a nonchalant attitude to our governance. If Marcos turned to Communism, I’m sure the Filipinos would have lined-up before our local version of the Pied Piper and followed him to the road to perdition. Twenty three years ago, we threw out the Marcos Dictatorship through the EDSA Revolt. That was no doubt one of the proudest moments of the Filipino people; that we are able to rid ourselves of a dictatorship that was propped up by the United States government.

Let me say it very clearly here, if the Americans didn’t support the Martial Law of Marcos, he wouldn’t have stayed in power that long. But as it is, the unofficial statement of American officials in those days was “Marcos may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he is our son-of-a-bitch!” This proves to you that American interest comes first than their interest in promoting Democracy. Because Marcos only made billions as a dictator, he plunged the Philippines from being second only to Japan, down to the second to the last in Asia. Indeed, dictatorship wasn’t good for the Philippines!

If only the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship wasn’t so greedy and turned the Philippines into what is Singapore today, perhaps the Marcoses might still be in power. Singaporeans also do not have certain freedoms, like the freedom to criticize their government, but Singaporeans don’t really care for as long as many of them are well-to-do. It’s a give and take situation. They lost certain freedoms in exchange for zero poverty.

Here in the Philippines, politicians from Marcos all the way to Erap always claim to help the poor Filipinos, yet the majority of Filipino still live in abject poverty because they rallied behind and worse, they believed in the yarn of these politicians whose true objective is the enrich themselves using the people’s money!

Take the case of ousted Pres. Erap who was voted into power by an overwhelming majority. His shenanigans got him ousted as President and convicted of plunder. But he continues to profess his innocence, though he has been linked to the Dacer-Corbito murder case and allegedly coerced the Yuchengcos to sell their PLDT shares for millions in commissions. For Erap, everyone is lying, while he is the only one telling the truth!

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