Chapter 1
Chapter 1
This paper features the eyewitness accounts of some ten victims of martial law in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Most of the eyewitnesses belong to the lower strata of the Philippine social structure. They are the nameless victims of a cruelty inflicted on a society that is interested mainly on the stories of the rich and famous, the good and the beautiful. Recorded history has always delineated the "inarticulate" to the background and denied them a space in the pages of history. This document aims to shine the spotlight on the "ugly" reality: stories of courage, strength, and the will to live with dignity during the martial law period. This paper also aims to show the millennial generation how the youth of the recent past lived, suffered, fought, survived and managed to find their way through during the dark years of martial law. And, in the process, learn from these virtual experiences. The nation has lost a generation of leaders during the martial law period. They represent a generation of unrecognized heroes who charted the nation's destiny - willingly or unwillingly. Using the framework of a "peoples' history where individuals can be correctly appraised", the paper puts to the fore the people's efforts to make changes in their own way that when validated collectively puts in contrast to the well-oiled machinery of former President Marcos' government. Some of the martial victims who survived their ordeal at the hands of the government military and police had died while the data was being gathered. A relative of a university professor gave this writer the typed manuscript of the person's testimony. Another, a farmer from the Visayas, allowed herself to be interviewed on behalf of her parents. Some of the martial law survivors remain alive today to tell their own stories. Apart from the interviews, the author also researched into the files of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Bantayog ng mga Bayani, and Claimants one thousand eighty-one, Inc. The SELDA files currently housed at the University of the Philippines Main Library cannot be easily accessed during the research period and thus was the limitation of this paper. The author also gathered data from the Commission on Human Rights. Transcripts of the interviews were given to this writer as formally requested for this paper in twenty seventeen. The CHR investigating team went to Malisbong, a barangay in the municipality of Sultan Kudarat in the province of Maguindanao in the island of Mindanao in twenty fourteen. The Commission gathered data for its Stories of Heroism and Resistance, Martial Law Oral History Project and uploaded it on Youtube for public viewing in twenty seventeen.