A museum dedicated to honor the lives and sacrifices of victims and survivors of martial law will be built inside the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman campus.
The “Fall of Brutal," designed by architects Mark Anthony Pait, Mark Angelo Bonita, and Wendell Crispo, won the Freedom Memorial Museum Design Competition spearheaded by the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVMMC) in 2019.
The structure is set to rise on a 1.4-hectare land near the UP College of Fine Arts and will house memorabilia, artifacts, education materials, and audio-visual content.
The P500 million memorial will reportedly be funded from former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth in Switzerland returned to the Philippine government by virtue of decisions of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
The museum is expected to be unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law on September 21, 2022.
The HRVMMC is also coordinating and collaborating with the Department of Education (DepED) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to ensure that teaching of Martial Law atrocities, the lives, and sacrifices of the human rights violations victims in our history are included in the secondary and tertiary education curricula.
“It is hoped that the current and future generations will learn lessons from our experiences during martial law in order to continue defending human rights and democratic institutions,” the Commission said.