‘Unless there is anarchy or the beginnings of it’

Four decades and three years ago today, the Philippines woke up to a nightmare called martial law that lasted, officially, until 1981, but went on until Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986. I remember waking up early that day to prepare for school, only to be told that classes had been suspended. I looked out the window into the sunshine and stepped out of our gate, to find Edsa eerily deserted. I was but 11 years old but I sensed that something was not right. When I walked onto Edsa to do some exploring, my father called me back into the house and instructed everyone to stay indoors.

That evening, a television broadcast, in black and white, made it official: Martial law was upon us.

When school resumed we learned about Proclamation No. 1081 dated Sept. 21, 1972. Later I learned that 1081 was signed on Sept. 17 but was not operational until the evening of Sept. 22. It was made known officially on Sept. 23. Despite his intellectual gifts, Ferdinand Marcos entertained a bit of superstition over the number 7 and timed all important decisions and actions on dates divisible by 7. This explains why the martial law proclamation was dated Sept. 21.

During the martial law years the car plate 777 was restricted to the use of Imelda Marcos. In a diary entry in October 1969, Ferdinand Marcos explained the significance of the number 7 and why he caused the presidential yacht to be given number 777—“the number of votes that made me win the convention of 1964 as against Emmanuel Pelaez, who received 444 votes in the second balloting in the convention.”

Every September I open my copy of the Marcos diaries and read at random in search of a topic for a column. The early entries illustrate how well planned and deliberate was the imposition of martial law in 1972. Marcos had been toying with the idea early on, his only obstacle being his legal background which required that his actions be justified by existing laws. While the world was recovering from the revelry that greeted the New Year of 1971, Marcos was brooding in Malacañang. He scribbled the following words on Palace stationery:

“And when I watch the supposedly patriotic men, in their selfish and egoistic ways, wreck our Republic, I almost lose my objectivity and dispassionate attitude as anger boils within me and eggs me to immediately put into effect the plan to establish martial law. This I must avoid.

“For I will not declare martial law unless there is anarchy or the beginnings of it which prevents the functioning of courts and other government offices, even if the constitution authorizes me to do so when there is ‘imminent danger of invasion, insurrection or rebellion’ and there is actually rebellion going on now.

“The silent conspiracy against our republic is joined in by well-meaning men who use the inequities of our society and despair that they can ever be rectified except by radicalism and violence. For there are many valid grounds of grievance as the rich and powerful disregard or are insensitive to the dreams or even the frustrations and pains that torture the masses of our people. So I must be deliberate, prudent and wise.”

As a historian I wonder how much of the diaries was recovered when the Marcoses were forced to leave Malacañang in 1986. A few stray entries for 1969 suggest that he might have kept a diary during his first term as president or even earlier, when he was a senator or congressman. Marcos began a diary in earnest on Jan. 1, 1970, stating:

“I start a daily written record of my second term in office as President. This will be kept in loose-leaf so that all kinds of materials may be attached to the binder. Thus the background should be a treatise on the elections of 1969. This will be composed of my critique as well as the commentaries on the technique of victory.”

With a presidential election coming up next year, it would be fascinating to get an insider’s view of the 1969 election and Marcos’ commentary. Does the document exist? How can we reconstitute what is left of the Marcos diaries and collate it with all the other documents he set aside for important entries?

We are fortunate that the Official Gazette is now available online, thanks to the efforts of Manolo Quezon and his staff. The Gazette provides material on the President’s week: what he did, who he met, what important speeches he delivered, and, of course, what laws, directives, proclamations, etc. he issued or caused to be issued in his name.

Although Marcos’ diaries are self-serving, I believe a clever historian can tease the truth from such a biased source that is fascinating for its human detail: what he ate, what he felt, how he thought, etc. On Sept. 25, 1972, with his enemies and critics in check, with the media and Congress closed, he gloated:

“The public reaction throughout the Philippines is a welcome to martial law because of the smooth, peaceful reestablishment of peace and order and the hope of a reformed society. In fact most everyone now says, this should have been done earlier!

“It is indeed gratifying that everyone now finds or discovers I am some kind of a hero!

“There is nothing as successful as success!”

The Philippines and the Filipinos would never be the same since, and we who look back on those days tread the fine line between remembering and forgetting.

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