Teaching of martial law period in PH history

|Having been a martial law victim myself, I believe that “Everyone, from President Aquino down to the most miserable of victims, feels strongly that the teaching of the martial law period in the country’s history should be institutionalized” (Inquirer, 9/23/12).

I was 32 years old when martial law was declared by President Ferdinand Marcos on Sept. 21, 1972. For being an activist-instructor at the UP College of Forestry (UPCF) in Los Baños, Laguna, I was summarily imprisoned for 10 long months at Camp Vicente Lim in Canlubang, Laguna and subsequently dropped from the faculty rolls of the aforesaid educational institution.

Prior to my detention, I went into hiding for five months and later applied for amnesty, but just the same I was put in stockades and mentally tortured.

Upon my release from detention on Nov. 30, 1973, I applied for reinstatement as instructor at the UPCF. However, this was flatly denied by the UPCF administration. So I busied myself in coconut farming and politics in the town of Pagsanjan. And so I have remained up to the present.

—CRISOSTOMO B. VILAR,

vice mayor,

Pagsanjan, Laguna