52nd martial law anniversary brings spotlight on Duterte

STOKING MEMORY’S FLAME Families of the victims and survivors of human rights atrocities during the Marcos dictatorship, along with their supporters, brave the rains on Saturday night to commemorate the 52nd anniversary of the declaration of martial law with a candle lighting ceremony at Bantayog ng mga Bayani, a memorial to anti-Marcos activism, in Quezon City. —Niño Jesus Orbeta

MANILA, Philippines — On the 52nd anniversary of the 1972 declaration of martial law, rights groups refocused the spotlight on former President Rodrigo Duterte as another figure of tyranny in recent history.

“Under Duterte, ‘martial law’ ceased to be a term exclusively associated with [deceased former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.],” Karapatan said in a statement on Saturday.

It cited Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao from May 2017 to December 2019 with a total of 953 days.

READ: Marawi residents welcome Duterte’s ‘No extension of Martial Law’ announcement

MARTIAL LAW ANNIVERSARY Filipinos commemorate the declaration of martial law by dictator Ferdinand Marcos 52 years ago on Sept. 21, 1972, with a march on España Boulevard, one of Manila’s busiest streets, to Mendiola (center) where the police dispersed the protesters (left photo). It was open house at the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani Museum in Quezon City (right photo) where martial law memorabilia were on display to remind the public of the human rights violations during the 14-year dictatorship. —PHOTOS BY RICHARD A. REYES, LYN RILLON

Duterte was also responsible for the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), which went on an “indiscriminate frenzy of Red-tagging” against dissenters and activists.

READ: Not my duty to apologize for martial law atrocities — PBBM

NTF-Elcac has made critics “vulnerable to human rights violations, such as arbitrary arrest and detention on trumped-up charges, enforced disappearance or extrajudicial killing,” Karapatan stressed.

Duterte’s Memorandum Order No. 32 stepped up police and military operations in Samar, Bicol and Negros, which led to some of the “worst human rights violations,” the group pointed out.

READ: 51st Martial Law Anniversary: ‘Kung di ta patyon sa gutom, patyon ta sa bala’

Because of such policies during the Duterte administration, the group said human rights violations continued under the second Marcos administration.

MARTIAL LAW ANNIVERSARY Filipinos commemorate the declaration of martial law by dictator Ferdinand Marcos 52 years ago on Sept. 21, 1972, with a march on España Boulevard, one of Manila’s busiest streets, to Mendiola (center) where the police dispersed the protesters (left photo). It was open house at the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani Museum in Quezon City (right photo) where martial law memorabilia were on display to remind the public of the human rights violations during the 14-year dictatorship. —PHOTOS BY RICHARD A. REYES, LYN RILLON

The group claimed that cases of extrajudicial killings increased to 60 in 2023, up from 41 in the previous year. Enforced disappearances jumped to 11 in last year from four in 2022.

Karapatan and other groups also called for vigilance to ensure that martial law atrocities are not repeated.

The anti-Marcos group Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (Carmma) pointed out the “tell-tale signs of creeping dictatorship.”

“In the face of [President Marcos’] tyrannical ambitions, the part of history that does bear repeating is the people’s astounding overthrow of Marcosian rule,” Carmma said in a statement.

MARTIAL LAW ANNIVERSARY Filipinos commemorate the declaration of martial law by dictator Ferdinand Marcos 52 years ago on Sept. 21, 1972, with a march on España Boulevard, one of Manila’s busiest streets, to Mendiola (center) where the police dispersed the protesters (left photo). It was open house at the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani Museum in Quezon City (right photo) where martial law memorabilia were on display to remind the public of the human rights violations during the 14-year dictatorship. —PHOTOS BY RICHARD A. REYES, LYN RILLON

Meanwhile, former human rights commissioner Etta Rosales, a victim of martial law, acknowledged that the incumbent President is not his father, but insisted that Marcos should “atone” for his father’s sins.

“He is not his father, but he knows that his father has committed so many sins,” Rosales told the Inquirer.

“It makes him more noble and a [great] man if he apologizes because it takes humility and integrity to recognize the mistakes of his father,” said Rosales, now 85 years old.

Based on the count of Amnesty International, which was founded in 1961, around 70,000 were incarcerated, 34,000 tortured and more than 3,000 were killed during the nearly 14-year Marcos dictatorship.