On 48th anniversary of declaration, Robredo says Martial Law atrocities undeniable

The atrocities committed during the Martial Law years under then-President Ferdinand Marcos are facts that cannot be denied, Vice President Leni Robredo said Monday as she warned the public against alleged attempts to “tell us otherwise.”

Robredo made the statement on the commemoration of the 48th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law on September 21.

“Maraming pinahirapan, naglaho, at pinatay noong Martial Law; lumobo ang utang ng bayan na binabayaran natin hanggang sa ngayon; lumalim at lumawak ang kahirapan. Dinurog ang mga institusyong haligi ng lipunan. Naging bahagi ng diwa ng pamamahala ang korupsyon at pang-aabuso. These truths know no political color. Walang debate dito; nangyari ito,” said Robredo, who defeated a Marcos scion in the 2016 vice presidential race.

Amid alleged attempts to rewrite Philippine history, Robredo said, “Those who attempt to tell us otherwise are not only merely telling a supposed version of the story: They are lying to our faces, stealing our truths from us, stealing our stories.”

“Because without these truths and stories, we will be further divided, at mas madaling magtatagumpay ang mga pagtatangkang abusuhin muli tayo,” she added.

Based on government records, at least 3,000 people were killed and over 70,000 others were imprisoned for opposing the Martial Law.

Having said that, Robredo stressed that the atrocities during the Martial Law era should be told over and over to generations for such bloody and brutal regime not to happen again.

“Our task is to push back against these lies at every instant. To tell the stories of Martial Law and dictatorship over and over so that this generation, and the ones that come after, may be bound tighter through remembering. To hold firm to the truth of this painful chapter of our history, and through this, forge the determination to never again let our people fall into such despair,” Robredo said.

“We must do this because, ultimately, our national aspirations can only be as strong as our national memory. Ngayong araw, manindigan muli tayong hindi tayo makakalimot.”

Marcos and his family were ousted from power on February 25, 1986 after three days of bloodless People Power Revolution.

Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989 where the family lived in exile. His surviving family members, however, were allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991 by then-President Corazon Aquino.

Aquino's son, former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, later signed the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act into law in 2012 — a law mandating the Philippine government to compensate the victims of human rights violations during the Martial Law years using the P10 billion ill-gotten wealth of the late president Marcos and his family retrieved by the Philippine government from a Swiss bank.

These violations, according to the law, include summary executions, enforced disappearances and torture.

Victims of the human rights violations under the Martial law regime as well as human rights workers have called for mandatory Martial law lessons in school, but this proposal is yet to gain significant support. —KBK, GMA News