A martial law baby speaks

I WAS born in 1970. In my elementary years I saw the dark age and the painful chapter of Philippine history called martial law.

I lived in Fairview, Quezon City.

Between Philcoa and Fairview was a rough and dusty road. In school, we were required to sing “Ang Bagong Lipunan” every day.

Every time President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos attended a gathering, their “operators” in every nearby barangay would bring busloads of their constituents to the venue, who were given P20 each.

The worst scenario I saw at my young age was a “salvaging” incident that so terrified me. My family and I were awakened very early in the morning by a series of gunshots. The next thing I knew I was looking at a bloodied, hogtied corpse. It obviously was not a holdup case; the jewelry and wallet of the  salvaged victim were still with him.

As we celebrated the 30th anniversay of Edsa People Power, there are some sectors wanting to revise history, saying martial law was the “golden age” of the Philippines. This historical revisionism will not succeed because the Filipino people, especially those who suffered during martial law, will remember and remain vigilant.

Especially the surviving torture victims and the families of activists who disappeared during the iron rule of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s father. The overall estimate of martial law victims: 3,257 killed, 40,000 tortured, and more than 60,000 illegally detained. Press freedom was also a casualty—it was suppressed.

Cronyism bled the economy to death due to behest loans granted by President Marcos even as the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line doubled—from 18 million in 1965 to 35 million in February 1986; this while the nation’s foreign debt soared to a staggering $27 billion.

All this belies the claim of Ferdinand Jr. that Filipinos were better off under the Marcos dictatorship.

—ROY CALFOFORO, roycalf@gmail.com