“Defiance is necessary to rid the state from tyranny” — Zach Dela Rocha
January 1970, Former President Ferdinand Marcos was welcomed by enraged students in a series of street demonstrations right after his speech in the Halls of Congress. This was a demonstration of youth and students who took to the streets to protest the alleged election manipulation that resulted to an overkill electoral victory of Marcos for a second term as president. The series of large demonstrations and protest gatherings continued from January to March 1970 now known as the First Quarter Storm. This was one of the factors that led Marcos to declare Martial Law in 1972 in the last two years of his term.
The cruel implementation of: curfews, the suspension of civil law, civil rights, suspension of habeas corpus, and the application or extension of military law or military justice to civilians was widely imposed. With this, the Marcos rule held the record of a huge number of human rights violations and extra-judicial killings. These were difficult times for student leaders fighting for student’s welfare and rights like Brenda Dacpano back then.
Last week, in a press conference led by Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees at Aresto (SELDA), Manang Brenda with other martial law survivors recalled their grim martial law experience before the press. Manang Brenda’s story struck me the most.
During the martial rule, academic freedom was curtailed whereas, students deprived of the right to engage in group discussions on any topic, or promote openly advocacy to certain eco-political issues were picked up for questioning. Furthermore, student rights like free speech, right to gather and organize (just to name a few) were also denied to students. With this, Manang Brenda in defiance fought for what is right and helped arouse, organize and mobilize her fellow students. Sadly as answer to her selfless act, the state vilified her, illegally arrested and detained her at an early age.
Now after hearing her experience, I cannot help but relate to her story because until now shadows of student oppression, similar to what happened during the martial rule still lurks around in our current academic institutions.
Today even after martial law and the so-called restoration of democracy, academic freedom still remains as an illusion. Based on my experience when I was a student we were limited to explore other topics in our research focus for our thesis subjects. What’s more, academic institutions nowadays dictate what authors of books to be read, restraining students to explore other ideas and principles.
Also, like martial law, progressive student organizations get blacklisted causing denial of organizational privileges, services, mobility, access or recognition. Worst, these progressive organizations and its leaders with their members get vilified or red-tagged as fronts of some underground organization. It is quite ironic that being assertive of your rights and being critical is by the way a mandatory trait of every citizen inside a democratic country, but it is dangerous though against democracy itself.
Martial law terrorized our nation for nine long years. Now, the case of manang brenda and other martial law survivors are more than enough for us to say, “Never again to martial law! Never again to student oppression! Never again to academic repression! Never again to student and organizations being vilified! Let’s learn from the struggles and experiences of the survivors. Lest we forget that Martial Law was a cowardly reaction of the state leaders to the rise of activism among students, workers and other sectors who were together asserting their nationalist and democratic rights.
Martial Law should not just be viewed as an isolated case of the absence of democracy but as a reflection of the unjust societal system that continues until now – the ruling class using the government, the State, and even the State’s military forces to protect and promote their interest and to preserve their top position in the social pyramid. This means Martial Law can actually happen any time when the people of the ruling class feel that the masses are at work to change the social system, that is, ang pagbaliktad ng tatsulok. At the same time, the 1972 Martial Law showed how Filipinos would sacrifice themselves for the liberation of the oppressed and for a democratic nation. # nordis.net
