Remembering Martial Law, Marcos and What Started Its End

January 22, 2007 by Roy Sencio
Filed under: Musings

Just a few days ago, people in the Philippines commemorated the anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

I will not elaborate further on martial law, or about Marcos and how he came to his end. There are a wealth of resources about this.

As we find ourselves 21 years down the road after we have regained our so called freedoms we realize that nothing has really changed for the better and we find that the same old people are still in power, a lot of government officials still usurp power to enrich themselves, and the Filipino is still where he was .. maybe even worse.

grown ups full hd

Have we all put to waste the sacrifice of the victims of persecution, the victims of salvaging… those who quietly disappeared… have those who have been brave enough to speak out all died in vain?

I am reminded how one day in 1983… when I was barely out of childhood yet too young to be mature enough to understand issues of the world, that one Sunday afternoon when I sat on the living room watching news blare away, reporting about some sort of assassination of some person who just got back from abroad. He must have been quite a prominent I figured, given the kind of publicity this was getting. I had never heard that man’s name ever, up until that Sunday afternoon.

For the very young who were never around during this time, and were never around during the original EDSA revolution.. they don’t have this personal appreciation of what happened, and sometimes don’t quite understand what it means, just reading about it from history books.

This is a remarkable interview… it gives me goosebumps. Here is the last TV interview of that man who was shot Aug. 21, at the back of the head while in “supposed heavy guard by escorting policemen”, he was shot before his feet even touched Philippine soil, the country he made sure to come back to, despite threats, warnings and pleas by people asking him not to return because his life was in danger.

Remembering Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, remembering what started the end for a dictator, remembering what a waste for all that to happen, and we are no further no better no more developed than we were back then.

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