ENDEAVOR
Where were you when martial law was declared 49 years ago?
It’s complicated.
A Millennial or Gen Z researcher today would learn that martial law was declared by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in Presidential Proclamation No. 1081 which was dated Sept. 21, 1972. But he announced this on television two days later at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23, 1972.
I watched that announcement from a TV set inside the gymnasium at Camp Crame, Quezon City, the headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary (now the Philippine National Police) – in the company of around 100 fellow detainees who had been arrested earlier that day. I was arrested at our home in Makati at around 1:30 a.m.
Upon reaching the Camp Crame gymnasium, I saw many familiar political and media personalities who had been arrested, too, ahead of me: Senators Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino, Jr., Jose ‘Pepe’ Diokno, Ramon ‘Monching’ Mitra, Jr. and Francisco ‘Soc’ Rodrigo; and constitutional convention delegates Teofisto Guingona, Jr., Alejandro ‘Ding’ Lichauco, Napoleon ‘Nap’ Rama, Jose ‘Joe’ Concepcion, Jr., Bren Guiao, Jose Mari Velez, among others.
After being fingerprinted and asked to pose for mug shots, I became officially a political detainee at the age of 19. I was then a senior political science student at the University of the Philippines. I was arrested by virtue of an Arrest, Search and Seizure Order (ASSO) signed by Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.
By the time Marcos went on nationwide television to announce that martial law was in force, some 8,000 persons had already been arrested and detained in Camp Crame and in other military camps nationwide.
The massive arrests were done to preempt any serious attempt to resist the imposition of martial law that Marcos had been dangling over the country since he suspended the writ of habeas corpus in August, 1971 – in the aftermath of the bombing of the Liberal Party rally in Plaza Miranda that he promptly blamed on the communists.
In June, 1971, a constitutional convention started its work to revise the 1935 constitution under which a President could serve only for a maximum of two four-year terms. Unless this was revised, Marcos’ second term as President would end in 1973. Martial law facilitated the enactment of a new constitution that extended Marcos’ hegemony by more than a decade.
In January, 1973, rump citizens’ assemblies were formed by decree in every barangay. By voice vote and raising of hands, it was claimed that some 35,000 citizens’ assemblies had ratified a new constitution. This ratification was questioned in the Supreme Court. On the landmark ratification case, Javellana v. Executive Secretary, two renowned constitutional scholars, namely, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, and former Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz wrote in separate books, as chronicled in Wikipedia:
“Six of the 10 members of the court (the Chief Justice, and Justices Makalintal, Zaldivar, Castro, Fernando, and Teehankee) said that the 1973 Constitution had not been ratified validly. But Justices Makalintal and Castro said that the people had acquiesced to the 1973 Constitution whether or not the ratification was valid, saying that the question of whether the Constitution could be invalidated was a political determination and not a judicial one. The Constitution was thus effectively upheld.”
Thus did Marcos obtain legal justification for him to stay on as President until the “paper lifting” of martial law in 1981 that was curiously timed a month before the visit of Pope John Paul II to Manila for the beatification of San Lorenzo Ruiz. Despite this ruse, Marcos retained all of his dictatorial powers until he and his family were forced into exile five years later.
After the 1986 People Power uprising, then President Corazon Aquino formed a constitutional commission to draft a new charter that was approved by the Filipino people in a plebiscite in February, 1987. It is also called the Freedom Constitution because its avowed purpose is “to limit the power of the government such that the rights of the citizens are protected from government abuse.” By May, 1987, elections were held that enabled the reestablishment of both the Senate and the House of Representatives after a 15-year hiatus. Local elections were held in 1988, ending nearly two decades of appointed officers-in-charge in the provinces, cities and towns.
In 1992, the citizenry witnessed the first peaceful transition since 1965 from a duly elected President of the Republic to another – or after a lapse of nearly three decades.
The power to impose martial law is now subject to immediate review by Congress. Hence, the sweeping shutdown of both houses of Congress and the shuttering of all newspapers and broadcast communication channels are effectively precluded.
The clarion call ‘Never again!’ to martial law resonates with most Filipinos old enough to understand the events that transpired nearly five decades ago. It is their duty to educate and enlighten the younger generations that the freedoms we enjoy today represent the sum total of the sacrifices – in blood, sweat and tears – of their elders who stood up to defend democracy during the long dark era of dictatorship.