In the search for truth, justice and reparation, the horrors of martial law must never be forgotten
The 2022 Philippine national and local elections resulted in a so-called landslide victory for the Marcos-Duterte tandem. There is every reason to fear that with the Marcoses focusing on sanitizing their name, stepping up efforts to distort history will be one of the most important priorities of the administration.
In an interview with CNN on May 25, Senator Imee Marcos said: “The return to Malacanang, we have been there, the truth is our return to the palace is not that important. What’s most important to us is, of course, our name, the family name that has become so controversial and so difficult to bear. The legacy of my father is what we hope will be clarified at last.”
In an interview conducted on May 19 with Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo, he said: “There is clear and present danger of the distortion of our history, simply because social media has been flooded in the last five, 10 years with things that are not in sync with what we know as historical truth — the golden age of Marcos, the Tallano gold … and then many, many other things.”
Over 90 percent of Filipinos with internet access are on social media with the domination of YouTube and Facebook. Some 78.5 percent of the population is on Facebook while 77 percent watch YouTube. Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber are other sources of information as well. However, due to the slow internet connection among other factors, not many social media users verify the reliability of the information.
In these times of a proliferation of lies, when atrocities of the past are intentionally hidden from the public eye, when literature and films that recorded the excruciating pains of victims of human rights violations are at risk of being banned, when many do not care about distinguishing facts from fake news, civil society should be alarmed and act accordingly.
What has the Department of Education done to help generations who had not yet seen the light of day during martial law know the truth? Did schools make themselves conducive to learning the harsh realities of martial law? Are human rights part of the school curricula? Even those born after martial law and not too young to understand and analyze the ills of society did not have the much-needed encouragement to read and study. To help ensure non-recurrence, have survivors of martial law done enough to convey the message to the young generation about what happened to them?
Dealing with the past is relevant in a country whose present and immediate future leaders would frown upon any reference to its contemporary history or refer to it other than as the glorious “Golden Years”
In the search for truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, memorialization is very relevant. Dealing with the past is relevant in a country whose present and immediate future leaders would frown upon any reference to its contemporary history or refer to it other than as the glorious “Golden Years.”
I had a long discussion with the new ambassador of Argentina to the Philippines, His Excellency Ricardo Bocalandro, who invited me to a meeting in my capacity as the 2013 awardee of the Emilio F. Mignone International Human Rights Prize given by the government of Argentina. We spoke a bit about Philippine history as well as the country’s situation after the 2022 elections and civil society’s response. Then we spoke about Argentina.
Despite the difference in contexts of the Philippines and Argentina, I could not help but envy the vibrant civil society response in Argentina which I have visited three times. On Dec. 10, 2013, the 30th anniversary of the restoration of democracy in the country and the 65th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in a mammoth demonstration, I heard the Argentinian people’s cry reverberating loudly in all nooks and corners of Buenos Aires: “Ahora, ahora!’ Resulta indispensable! Aparición con vida y castigo a los culpables!” (Now, now! It is necessary! Reappearance of life and punishment of the perpetrators!)
We talked about the former ESMA (Escuela Mecanica de la Armada), the infamous navy school. It is the most powerful memorial I have ever seen in my work travels to various countries. Located at the heart of Buenos Aires, it is the place where 30,000 desaparecidos during Argentina’s military rule were detained and tortured.
What struck me most was the infirmary called Pregnant Women’s Room where pregnant women were kept alive until they delivered their babies and fed them with colostrum. They were the classified as trasladadas or transferred, a euphemism for death. Victims of the “death flights,” they were brought by helicopters and thrown into the Rio de la Plata, a river adjacent to what is now the Memory Park — Monument of the Victims of State Terrorism, a 14-hectare public space. It is a place of memory where thousands of names of the disappeared and the murdered are inscribed.
I also remember the upper floor, the place where the detainees were tortured. Those who had talent to print publications were made to do forced labor.
The huge museum also has a dark room, a printing press and an audiovisual room.
A day’s tour around the ex-ESMA provided me with enriching information about Argentina’s dark past — a past that people are not tired of talking about and learning from in order to guarantee non-repetition.
Ordinary people in Argentina know their history. On my last visit in 2017, I remember the taxi driver who drove me to the airport and who, in an hour, gave me the best lesson in history I have ever heard. He spoke fondly of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, whom the dictatorship ridiculed as “las locas” or the crazy ones.
During my meeting with the Argentinian ambassador, his deputy, Minister Plenipotentiary Andrea Repetti, asked what memorials I visited. I mentioned a few ones in Timor-Leste, in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Sri Lanka. They are modest but likewise profoundly meaningful.
Memorials play an important role in fighting against impunity and in peace-building. To maximize their effectiveness, they have to be integrated in a comprehensive and strategic plan for social transformation
An example is the Monument of the Disappeared in Sri Lanka. Every Oct. 27, families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka, a country notorious for its record of thousands of enforced disappearances, gather at the monument, which was constructed in 1991 in response to the 30,000 cases that occurred between 1987 and 1991. I participated in some activities where victims offered flowers to their loved ones, kissed their images and grieved. Inscribed on the wall is a poem by Basil Fernando:
“With no name attached,
Is for you,
Who have no grave,
As the place of earth,
Which embraced you.
Could not be found.
This was placed by the wayside
Forgive me
For placing a memorial for you
By the roadside.”
A Catholic priest, Father Manoj Perera, threatened to demolish the monument. This was preceded by several attempts by the parish council to disrupt and discourage the use of the monument and the annual commemoration. This act was definitely intended to obliterate the memory of the victims and disregard the undeniable phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka. The organization Families of the Disappeared was accused of using a lot owned by a Catholic church and established the monument secretly. The accusation was made despite the fact that the monument had been used 11 years prior.
I, of course, mentioned the Philippines’ Bantayog ng Mga Bayani or Monument of Heroes which, with the victory of Marcos and Duterte, has received more interest from the youth, especially those utterly dismayed by the election results. Looking back to when Marcos’ remains were shamefully buried at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani or Heroes’ Cemetery in 2016, this memorial also received more interest. On its Wall of Remembrance, names of victims of the Marcos regime are etched. The lady statue, a 14-meter monument, symbolizes the motherland reaching out for freedom. The fallen man in the woman’s arm signifies heroism and martyrdom.
Faced with challenges, including funding constraints, dilapidation caused by Typhoon Ulysses and a threat that the land where the museum sits might be taken back by the government, Bantayog ng Mga Bayani needs to be supported and promoted more than ever.
A testament to the sufferings of the heroes and martyrs, the monument is a sacred place for victims and survivors and for every freedom-loving Filipino who should take part in playing the crucial role of reshaping the future of our motherland.
Dealing with the past is a necessary means to break the cycles of impunity. Memorialization, as an integral part of dealing with the past, is especially relevant as the Philippines is facing the risk of forgetting an excruciatingly painful part of its history — a past that should never be forgotten.
Memorials play an important role in fighting against impunity and in peace-building. To maximize their effectiveness, they have to be integrated in a comprehensive and strategic plan for social transformation.
As Czech novelist Milan Kundera said: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
* The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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