CHAPTER 10 - OPENING SALVO

Chapter 10

Opening Salvo

(Restiveness of the Masses was felt all over especially in Manila, the Capital city of the country. Source: Microsoft Bing. Retrieved 07-12-2022)

Events happened too quickly after the imposition of Martial Law in the country. The so-called ABC of Martial Law coined by Rueben Canoy in his Counterfeit Revolution, an acronym for Camps Aguinaldo, Bicutan, and Crame were all filled to the rafters by those who were identified earlier in the hit list. Like a bull came rushing for the big kill against a matador, Martial law paved the way for the arrest of those identified in the order of battle involving opposition. Thus, the first wave of arrests included Ninoy Aquino, Salonga, Tañada, Pimentel, Diokno, and countless faceless individuals who were herded into Rehabilitation Centers like drug addicts and criminals. Similar incidents happened in the provinces sending unfortunate souls into the stockades. Those who managed to slip away from the dragnet set by the Brown Shirts found their solace and protection in the hills and mountains increasing to maximum the number of insurgents.

"Where else would these hapless people go than to secure their lives to safety from the collective strength of the people up in the hinterlands?"

President Marcos might have been shortsighted on this. But he was the direct source of such mass exodus of peasants, student leaders, and ordinary citizens to the hills. He was an aid to have recruited the highest number of NPAs.

You cannot right a wrong approach with another wrong approach or solution in other words as Horace might view it.

Those whose connections with better-off families were open and were anticipating their fate under Marcos used the backdoor and went in haste to the United States and other countries for safety. Undaunted by the sweeping detention and threats to their lives, these men with uncompromising virtues hold on to their last breath and mustered enough courage to fight back against Marcos through the use of print media. Documenting human rights violations and evil of Martial Law, these young men published in the international dailies Martial Law sad stories drawing sympathy and financial resources helpful in handling Marcos' downfall later. One such valiant group was Ninoy Aquino Movement based in the US headed by Sonny Alvarez who became a senator later. This group was credited with documenting the ill-gotten wealth amassed by Marcos while in office. This brave expose' would later win a Pulitzer Prize for San Jose Mercury News in California. The succeeding arrests of people alleged as either subversives or mere supporters followed suit and revealed untold sufferings to the brave Filipinos. Those who later fell into the military prison camps were many. The arrests were all-embracing regardless of creed, profession, and persuasion. Fr. de la Torre was an SVD priest, Satur Ocampo and Julius Fortuna were Journalists, and Fidel Agcaoili, a firebrand nationalist. Victor Corpus, an erstwhile professor at Philippine Military Academy in Baguio, Bernabe Buscayno, the founder of the New Peoples' Army, the armed combatant of the Communist Party of the Philippines. They fell into the hands of the military one after the other. The list continues.

These gentlemen learned later the stark reality in detention centers and started paying the price for their cause. Burning of genitals, electric and water shock treatment, and pulling off of fingernails using pliers among others became the fad of the time. The longer the prisoners do not confess, the longer they were tortured. Task Force Detainees (TFD) established later in 1974 by the Association of Major Religious Groups has the complete data and presentation of the harrowing experience of the political detainees.

Ninoy had also his Testament from the Prison Cell telling an account of his abduction, his spiritual transformation, his refusal to be tried by the Military Commission and the strong defense and encouragement and defense put up by Salonga in a Military Tribunal. The book was the product of his reflection while inside the prison cell he put into writing and did not recognize the legality of the military court and sees no difference with a kangaroo court.

Good for those who were properly accounted for as political prisoners, the Task Force Detainees and other cause-oriented groups rallied for their release and freedom to the end. But for those summarily executed, it was just too bad for them to have darkness and the silence of the environment and faceless and nameless executioners as mute witnesses.

"God knows how to punish these ruthless executioners comes the time of reckoning," many survivors would soon reveal experiencing the savagery of militarization.

It is even disheartening to learn that those who were not able to resist the shock treatment became nuts and or given the coup de grace to lessen their sufferings. Euthanasia in action, you might say. May they all rest in peace and God makes their souls whiter than snow. Ironically, movies would portray later these butchers as heroes never touching the plot of their stupid exploits. The moviegoers just love seeing it anyway like crazy.

Marcos' massive detention of activists murdering some is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin's purging of his enemies he perceived as threats to the chair vacated by Lenin. It's not a far-fetched idea that Marcos' attempt of putting the strong oppositionists behind barbed wires is a photocopy of Stalin. The only difference and catch are that Marcos was smarter than Stalin. He knows how to execute his plan in the right place, right time, and with the right reason. At least, that is what Marcos perceived in proclaiming Martial Law on September 21, 1972.

Martial Law as a concept became hot stuff and the most abused concept even among his apostles surprisingly. Marcos himself sounded like a fifteenth-century reborn apologist defending its necessity. He repeatedly claimed that it is not a military take-over civilian function, not even a coup d'etat, and never an attempt of installing a revolutionary government. The military has not taken over the government, he flatly defends it.

"It is merely called upon to assist the civil government to restore within the shortest possible time the tranquility of the Filipino people and the security of the Philippines," explained AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Espino in defense of the military establishment.

"Civil authority is still supreme except where it cannot perform its functions and prerogative or is not adequate to protect individual properties and life," says Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.

"A heaven-sent relief," any foreign investors alarmed by the state of rebellion would say.

Too many justifications by too many apologists. Such had been the situation when Martial Law was implemented. There were indeed too many 'whys' depending on the personality of the speaker. Unfortunately, the more they utilized rhetoric the faster they explained the issue away. Such is the common perception of a layman. That following the declaration of Martial Law ushering naturally death of democracy.

Unknown to Juan de la Cruz, save for the President and his apologists, it has been thought that Uncle Sam helped in instigating the declaration of Martial Law. They would divulge later draft of Martial Law's declaration was on the American Ambassador's desk two months before it was issued. Who's fooling whom? Quite understandable because the resurgence of nationalist movements threatening the US and its allies was eminent. Internecine strife within the elite was just a good excuse.

To whose benefits after all Martial Law accrued? Nothing else but the US, Marcos, and most importantly, the military establishment unparalleled in the history of the country. That the latter underwent a sweet metamorphosis invested with enormous power and privilege by Marcos could be considered a lasting legacy. The opposite holds. It's the civilians who bear the high cost. To think that the majority who suffered most were innocent victims, newborns, children, and even elders who should have been given decent burials make the issue all the more outrageous.

For its part, it is understandable that Uncle Sam would like to maintain its US bases in the country and continue adopting the Philippines as its capitalist enclave enjoying its privilege from the past deal at will. The system for this approach is Manifest Destiny and Benevolent Assimilation.

There are twenty other countries in the world where the US blatantly intervened according to Tom Gervasi, Director, Center for Military Research and Analysis. These happened between 1800 and 1983. These countries were: Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, Uruguay, Columbia, Chile, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala, China, Siberia, Korea, Laos, Congo, Vietnam, Grenada, and Panama. The research committee of the national movement for civil liberties also noted that between 1961 and 1976, the CIA carried out 900 major secret operations "aimed at overthrowing governments and otherwise influencing political development."

The recent political development in the Middle East has shown it all how ruthless Uncle Sam is in connivance with United Nations. It's practically very easy to sell one's soul to Uncle Sam.

All you have to do is to keep mum about his intervention and meddling. That's what happened to our country's economy. Again, we should learn a lesson from our past mistakes. Chiang Kai Shek, Gandhi, Tito, and the rest taught us how to say "enough" or allow the US strangles our economy further. The Philippines is not a hopeless case after all.

Power begets power. Marcos himself became Jack Whirler of all trades' double as a result of his PD 1081. Sustaining fourteen long years of dictatorship was no ordinary feat to a mortal. But Marcos did it extraordinary. First, it allowed him produced another Constitution. Second, as Commander-in-Chief, he made as many Presidential Decrees, General Orders, Letters of Instruction, and similar decrees as he wished. He did enjoy his orgy of making laws. Cardinal Sin himself later criticized Marcos' prolific decrees for becoming laws of the land claiming that even saliva he spits made laws the following day. Thus, ushering in the death of democracy. With one-man rule anyway plus the blind loyalty of his cohorts and trusted lieutenants, how would democracy survive? The Domino effect was felt everywhere in the judicial system, in the Senate and House of Representatives. The judiciary, legislature, and Congress stripped off of their vital functions were transformed into mere rubber stamps by Marcos overnight. Good that he did not go nuts managing and controlling everything. It's quite tough, especially for an ordinary citizen. Take for instance his smorgasbord long list of laws. Any ordinary taxpayer would suffer intellectual indigestion, a great shame to this country of many higher institutions of learning, once he reads them. Consider for example his moralizing in his first fifteen general orders extolling Filipinos of adopting Cleanliness is next to Godliness dictum be it in his house, road, and community or government, and encouraging thriftiness by limiting town fiesta to only just one day making it as simple and economical as possible. People from Bohol and Dalaguit, Cebu could not buy such an idea or general order of Marcos.

While his General Order dealt with not-so-serious issues, his Letter of Instructions was imperative and coercive ordering his Secretaries of different departments to take control of everything their hands could lean on for and on behalf of the government. This one was for Ripley's Believe it or Not, indeed one of Martial Law's irony. It confiscated vital private industries and yet Marcos himself and his cronies kept theirs and worst, engaged in wanton destruction of other properties. As an offshoot of this modus operandi, each crony would amass wealth as much as he could with impunity. Management by example, the greedy cronies justify. Manapat's written in a monastery provides a revealing account of the plunder of the economy by Oligarchs, smarter than others as the title of the book suggests.

Presidential decrees were other laws of the land couched in legalistic terms but were good only in papers. Examples of these were PD 2 and 27, two agrarian-related decrees subjecting the entire country under Agrarian Reform Program and decreeing the emancipation of tenants from the bondage of soil applying only to the tenant farmers of private agricultural lands primarily devoted to rice and corn. Well decreed but not when it dawned on Juan de la Cruz that the President himself excluded 1,800 hectares of his farm from coverage right in his backyard in Ilocos Sur.

" Follow what I say but not what I do," he would probably mean.

His PD 28 establishing seven Regional Prisons so far served its purpose later. Generally, though, such aforementioned proclamation did more damage to many Juan de la Cruzes prompting them to seek defense in the mountain either becoming armed combatants or mere supporters of the rebels' cause. With thousands of concerned Filipinos fleeing to the hills finding strength from the collective force of the people, Marcos qualified as the biggest NPA recruiter.

Overall, it's the Filipinos themselves who received the severe beatings from the proclamation of Dictatorship. Filipinos mean the great majority herded in many prison camps were civilians with the rest allegedly subversives or participants in the commission of crimes.

Initial numbers apprehended by the military troops was 60,000 of whom 45,958 were later released leaving 4,553 and 2,500 as participants in the commission of common crimes. Unfortunately, none of those charged with the violent overthrow of the government and those who committed crimes were brought to court. How could the military tribunals anyway handle their cases given their numbers? Soon the government faced an additional burden maximizing the budget for meals for those newly arrested. Alarmed by the worsening scenarios of Martial Law, The Roman Catholic Association of Major Religious organized the Task Force Detainees in January 1974 barely more than one year after the declaration of Martial Law. TFD calculated that there were 75,000 prisoners of conscience. Other human right group followed suit. The Free Legal Assistance Group extended free legal services to political detainees and called for better prison conditions and facilities.

The Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP) organized in October 1979 also extended the necessary lift by documenting human rights violations, a fact many military men didn't like or abhorred.

"If a military kills a rebel out of official duty in protecting the sovereignty of the state and security of its citizen, he would be charged with human rights violation. But if a rebel happens to kill a government trooper, it is just alright," said one disgruntled military.

Detention and arrest of political detainees was just a prelude to another important dimension of Martial Law i.e. torture reminiscent of Hitler's systematic genocide of the Jews he alleged to belong to the lowly and degrading Aryan race. The Actonian adage of Edmund Burke was right: "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Marcos denied it several times. But torture was part of his machinery. Aberrations, he might say yes but not outright torture ban by Geneva Convention and Protocol II where the Philippines was a signatory. Amnesty International quickly dismissed that idea with their findings in November-December 1975, three years after Martial Law, involving 105 political prisoners. AI noted that 68 of the prisoners were subjected to brutal treatment during their interrogations following their arrest. This was not so widespread among women detainees though "intimidation involving threats of sexual assault was commonplace," AI wrote. Methods used were: electric shock using a small generator sending electric current to genitals; San Juanico Bridge, named after one of the longest bridges in Asia connecting several islands in the Visayas. This is referred to as lying-on-the-air torture where a detainee lies with his feet on one bed and his head on the other bed. He's then beaten when his body falls or sags. Other forms were truth serum, famous among detective fiction and stories; Russian roulette, Falanga-beating soles of feet until a detainee is unable to walk; beating with fists, kicks, and karate blows; beating of contusive instruments; heads pounded against the walls or furniture; standing naked before an air-condition unit; water cure and other forms of torture. People notorious for doing these are mostly officers of PC, NISA, and other military and police intelligence officers, AI further noted.

Historian Michael Charleston Chua writing "Tortyur: Human Rights Violations during the Marcos Regime" later identified twelve tortures administered by the repressive State adding beating, pistol-whipping, strangulation, cigar, and flat iron burns, pepper torture, animal treatment, and other forms of psychological and emotional torture. These are stark reminders of the countries' dark past. Fellow clergy, nuns, Church workers, laity and just ordinary citizens engaged in empowering the masses against military rule are on the hit list. This Fr. Driarco didn't also see it coming to him. Rappler would later document this incredible experience by unfortunate ordinary citizens who in the first place didn't know the reason why they were abducted, apprehe,nded and tortured.

"All you have to do is just to write and speak against the government. That's it and would already qualify you to be abducted. When they do pray your fingernails would not be pulled out or teeth removed without benefits of anesthesia or you crying to high heavens of endless pain until you die. Everything just like that starting there. If you're not apprehended, fine! But it's just a matter of time you would be taken anyway given the Brown Shirts all over to get you. When you do, sorry your life and that of your family would never be the same again," Fr. Driarco learned from reading from documented cases and viewing relevant videos of families tracing the thankless whereabouts of their sons and daughters which normally ended their search in different cemeteries. The incidents of Felix Dalisay, a KM member; Joey Faustino, 21 years student of UP Los Baῆos whose death with nine others was charged to young rebels' encounter agathe inst military. Bonifacio Ilagan, renowned playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker was not exempted. Standing naked before his torturers, his penis was treated with a spine of coconut leaf its top laced with soap urinating blood later. The young 18 years old boy Neri Colmenares was lucky because that single bullet from Russian Roulette did not fire into his head after several consecutive tries. The case of 21 years old Liliosa Hilao, student activist from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Manila, first detainee in 1973 was similarly unfortunate. She suffered sacrificing her life to the altar of military rule in the end. Good for Loretta Ann Rosales, Judy Taguiwalo, activistsworker,sal worker and educators who served higher positions in the government later. They survived the treatment but not after suffering torture and sexual abuse.

"Other than the trauma we're deprived of counseling; we're even branded as mercenaries by the Marcos family because we demanded reparations. What a gall and nerve this liar first family have?" Bonifacio Ilagan protested.

(Source: Microsoft Bing. Neri Colmenares and Bonifacio Ilagan survived the torture administered to them. Retrieved 07-15-2022)

Lt. Col. Rodolfo Aguinaldo, Provincial commander of Cagayan Province, and former head of the C2 Special Intelligence team was considered one of the most persistent and systematic Lord of Torture in the military according to EMJP. He employed almost all techniques imaginable to squeeze desired information by putting filthy things in the mouth of a detainee like cockroaches, a deaf rat, or even human excreta. That's what he did to Henson Laurel and Satur Ocampo, erstwhile journalists. Gerry Bulatao who would become the top executive of the Department of Agrarian Reform suffered a similar fate at the hands of this rabid torturer. A similar complaint was lodged against Gen. Jovito Palparan called the Berdugo for having killed many rebels during his Tour of Duty in Mindoro. His orgy of killings innocent civilians and leaders made him a dreaded military officer during his term.

The arrest was indeed sweeping. For as long as your name is included in the Order of Battle. Your day and nights will never be the same again until you're captured and treated to horrendous persecution. But good for some of these people that their bodies were accounted for. Those enforced disappearances incidentally are yet counted and itemized. There were thousands of them. One such tragic end was Nong Colas who after volunteering as a missionary in a faraway village at Surigao del Sur hasn't returned home. His family has been wanting him to come back but so far not even his shadow could be seen until today. That has been more than two or three decades already. Sad to reveal that Cedric, his eldest son, made a covenant still celebrating his birthday with an earnest hope short of a miracle that he would come back someday. But when? Unfortunately, the incident happened right after the declaration of Martial Law. Since then the long wait is not over yet and would only end when the father safely arrives home.

Important and potential leaders in the province were also victims of Martial Law. Gov. Evelio Javier, Cory Aquino's staunch supporter in Antique was one of them.

Atrocities of dictatorship did not also respect gender. For as long as you are an activist, regardless of who you are you would suffer the full extent of that Law. Here many women fall some of them suffered not just torture but also were repeatedly raped. Etta Rosales, and Judy Taguiwalo were just some of the names who would be seen working with the government as Cabinet Secretaries later after the restoration of democracy. Many student leaders from the University of the Philippines similarly were abducted their bodies were never seen again.

Yet despite the figures from military abuse, Enrile and the first couple challenge even critics to come up with numbers as evidence of Martial Law atrocities.

"Except for Lim Seng, Chinese Drug lord meted firing squad early morning of January 15, 1972 we have not liquidated a Filipino."

And first Lady Imelda Marcos' classic excuse "We have not even pinched a single person!"

And the amazing declaration of them all straight from the strongman's mouth of them all: "No one, but no one has been tortured," begged Pres. Marcos.

"If these are not incorrigible liars, who are they?" Fr. Driarco begged the question.

This as he revealed an official record of statistics from Task Force Detainees of the Philippines:

2,668 incidents of arrests

398 disappearances

1,338 salvagings

128 frustrated salvagings

1,499 killed or wounded in massacres

(Source: Microsoft Bing. Retrieved 07-11-2022)

There have been reported cases of those who went nuts as a result of torture. Others just died. The rest were just given coup d' grace. If distrust by the military against the political detainees and ordinary civilians would stay killing, in turn, these detainees and or civilians in the process, then we are not far remote from what happened to the Khmer Rouge regime under Pol Pot where close to 700,000 or 1 million people died between 1975-79 of illness, exhaustion and or starvation. A certain Fernandez incidentally of course of Filipino lineage was one among the accomplices of Pol Pot's savagery.

Mainstream Media were not also exempted. They were the first to be axed from general circulation. They were simply clamped down. Yes, but you cannot censure Filipinos' creativity. With the closure of big TV Stations, national dailies of general circulation came the birth of Malaya and other independent broadsheets writing up-to-date reports on Martial law.

"When we Filipinos ever learn? While there is still time or when we're already blown into bits and pieces to borrow Aldous Huxley's idea in his Brave New World," Fr. Driarco realized how

far indeed Military Dictatorship had brought tragedy to their lives.

(Source: Microsoft Bing. Retrieved 07-11-2022)

. . . . . . . .

Undoubtedly, Martial Law was never a good alternative. It brings us closer to death all the more each day. This is what many Filipinos experiences, treated as the scapegoat of a system, not of their own choice. It was just like a double whammy for ordinary Filipinos when these erstwhile torturers were transformed into big guns as political leaders' big times of the society later – from Brigadier General to Lawmakers of the land, Senators in Senate, and Congressmen in the House of Representatives. Worst, their lives were even portrayed as role models in the make-believe world in movies. And the gullible Filipino moviegoers just enjoyed viewing them anyway not knowing their real stories and the pivotal roles they played in the past. Same people holding on to power and their dynasty taking turns later one after the other.

"Wow, when would this vicious cycle ends?" the bottom line and hanging question entertaining the young Catholic priest.

"What a story Martial Law brought!" he contemplated not knowing that the narrative is barely scratching the surface.

Fr. Driarco smiled thanking the power of reflection, his mind transformed into temporary camera events of the past on cue could be played back at will in such colorful fashion.

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