Never forget, never again!

Our dear colleague joined the Lord last September 18, three days before this year’s Martial Law anniversary, September 21.

Still, he was able to share, through FB messenger last September 16, his analysis entitled “Some notes on the South China Sea/West Phil Sea Conflict.”

Just as significant, last February this year, he shared with us his 2023 report entitled “The Marcos Dynasty: Its Rise, Fall, and Revival” with this solemn message, “feel free to share my paper with your friends and networks.”

As our tribute to a dedicated nationalist, a colleague, and a gentle soul who always generously shared his knowledge/analysis with all because of his genuine commitment to our people and our country, may we share below excerpts of his write-up about the “Dictatorial Rule during Martial Law” of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.

Temario “Temy” Rivera was a Professor of Political science and former Chair of the Department of Political Science of the University of the Philippines.

He was also a tenured Professor of International Relations at the International Christian University of Tokyo, author of various publications such as Landlords and Capitalists: Class, Family, and State in Philippine Manufacturing (1994); Philippines: State of the Nation (1996), co-author of Probing Duterte’s Foreign Policy in the New Regional Order: ASEAN, China, and the U.S. (2018); and co-editor of Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy, 2nd. ed. (2016); and The Marcos Restoration: The CenPEG Papers on Election 2022.

Below are Temy’s timely reminders to us all Filipinos so that we may never forget, never again allow in our country any dictatorial rule like that of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.

“In response to the Plaza Miranda bombing (in August 0f 1971), Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus and clamped down on the opposition in preparation for the eventual extension of his rule through martial rule.

Under the old 1935 constitution in place at that time, Marcos would have been ineligible to run in the 1973 presidential elections after completing his two terms in office.

Several other highly suspicious bombings all over Metro Manila followed in the wake of the Plaza Miranda bloodbath and ignited a train of events that led to the declaration of martial rule in September 1972.

To justify martial rule, Marcos invoked an alleged conspiracy of leftwing and right-wing elements out to seize power.

With the declaration of martial rule, the progressive agenda by reform-minded convention delegates was set aside.

Marcos succeeded in having his version of a new constitution that suited his authoritarian agenda approved by the remaining compliant or intimidated delegates and later ratified by orchestrated “peoples’ assemblies.”

Under the dictatorship which lasted for almost 15 years (1972-1986), Marcos disabled politically his rivals/critics from the legal opposition and unsupportive oligarchs.

His most consistent critics among the legal opposition were arrested, including Senators Benigno Aquino, Jr., Jose W. Diokno, progressive members of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, journalists/media personalities/workers/students/youth activists.

Martial rule took a heavy toll on the country’s political and economic development. Amnesty International documented about 70,000 people arrested, mostly arbitrarily;

34,000 people tortured; 3,240 killed by the military (not including many unreported cases of killings/desaparecidos in the countryside).

The powerful cronies closest to Marcos maximized the use of public resources for their private profit … Imelda herself engaged herself in the profligate use of public resources for grandiose showcase projects.

Reflecting the depth and reach of corruption during the martial rule of the Marcoses, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) had estimated this loot to be as high as US$10 billion.

With the deepening economic crisis in the early eighties, the brutal assassination of Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. in August 1983 accentuated a process of mass radicalization that led to the ouster of the dictatorship in February 1986 by a peoples’ uprising combined with a military mutiny.”