Forget Sept. 21
Very, very early, perhaps between 2 and 3 in the morning of Saturday, Sept. 23, 1972, I was awakened at home, in the southern side of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus, by the rat-tat-tat of automatic rifle fire, coming from the north. There were up to 100 shots, in intermittent bursts, over 10-15 minutes. An hour later there was a huge explosion, coming from the east. Then, eerie silence.
When dawn came, there was no radio or television or newspaper. I walked a block to the nearest university building, where a security guard said that the shots came from soldiers attacking the Iglesia ni Cristo compound on Commonwealth Avenue, in order to shut down the INC radio station. The INC guards resisted, and some were killed. I learned nothing about the explosion in the east, which sounded close to the UP High School.
Only in the afternoon of Sept. 23 did the government announce that President Ferdinand Marcos had proclaimed—supposedly on Sept. 21, the previous Thursday—the country under martial law. Yet life had been normal all of Thursday, as well as the next day, up to the evening hours at least.
Each of us has a personal memory of exactly when martial law started. For those immediately arrested, and those whose media operations were shut down, it may have been before midnight of Sept. 22. Historians can ascertain the timing best. For me, it was in the dark hours before dawn of Sept. 23.
The Filipino people’s consensus about the correct date to remember can be determined objectively. Not enough are aware that Marcos only chose Sept. 21 for commemoration because he considered numbers divisible by seven lucky for him, and thus ordered it to be a special holiday thereafter. For the Filipino people to mark martial law, up to now, on the date dictated by Marcos is to continue being fooled by him.
Assessments of martial law. Among us in UP, and among academics in general, I would say that the great majority were angry at the Marcos takeover. Human rights were summarily denied. Many professors and students were suddenly arrested and imprisoned. When it happened to a very close friend, my family took in his wife and child to live with us, for several years. Even those not personally affected had to be dismayed by the gross violation of democratic principles.
But what did Filipinos in general feel about it? Is it true, as Marcos loyalists claim, that Filipinos were pleased by a “smiling martial law”? Independent polling of political opinions could not be published (see my “Surveys suppressed by martial law,” Opinion, 10/6/2012). Yet one survey—perhaps because labeled “socioeconomic”—managed to escape Marcos’ censors. It was the Philippine Social Science Council national survey of 1974.
The PSSC 1974 survey. The January 1975 issue of Philippine Social Science Information, a limited-run publication of the Philippine Social Science Council, carried the report, “PSSC National Survey 1974: selected areas of national development,” by Emma Porio and Gloria A. Fernandez. The authors, research associates of the Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University, directed the survey, which was sponsored by the PSSC itself.
From November 1973 to April 1974, the project interviewed over 3,400 household heads—alternately, husband and wife—from all over the country, except in rural Jolo due to security problems. Among other things, it asked if certain socioeconomic conditions (see table below) had improved, or had stayed the same or had worsened, in the past five years. Because some 800 respondents had been resident in the community for less than five years, the table is based on the remainder-sample of over 2,600 five-year residents, which is still quite large. The excluded percentages of those who said conditions stayed the same are the residual from 100 of “better” plus “worse.”
For six of the eleven conditions, at least half of the sample said “worse.” For nine of them, the “worse” answers were dominant. Only for “better houses” and “participation in community affairs” were the “better” answers a plurality, and only slightly at that. Worst of all was “social equality of all people,” where the ratio of “worse” to “better” was two to one. Very telling was “contentment of people,” where “worse” was 11 points higher than “better.”
Even without considering the topics of democracy and human rights, the PSSC survey indicated that Filipinos nationwide were mostly unhappy about martial law.
PSSC National Survey Of 1974:
Source: M. Mangahas ed., Measuring Philippine Development, Development Academy of the Philippines, 1976, p.37; originally from PSSC Social Science Information, January 1975, Table 2 on page 8.
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