Position-paper.docx

A POSITION PAPER ON THE DECLARING OF MARTIAL LAW OF FERDINAND MARCOS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Presented to:

Mr. Mark Glen H. Magno

Christian Ecclesiastical School

In Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements of the Course

English for Academics and Professional Purposes

By: PAOLO V. BENAVIDEZ 12 - GAS 26 September 2018

In 1972 Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law with Proclamation 1081. He did it, he said, to save the Republic and to create what he called a "New Society." A whole generation of Filipinos now exists which only has the faintest recollection -- if at all -- of the Marcos dictatorship. Kids, this is what you missed. Perhaps it's what you should pass on when you have kids of your own. The lies. The biggest lie -- the mother lie -- was that Martial Law was imposed for the good of the people. It was not. It was imposed for the good of the Marcoses and their cronies, to keep them in wealth and unassailable power forever and ever amen. Marcos was a congenital liar: he lied about the state of emergency. He lied about his ill-gotten wealth ("what ill-gotten wealth?", he would ask amusedly."Tell you what, if you can find it we'll split it". Shows how reliable his word was). He lied about his war medals (almost all of them were fake), he lied about his father's wartime heroics (it turned out Marcos Sr was a collaborator executed by the guerrillas), he lied about his health. He lied about holding free elections and dismantling Martial Law. He lied and lied and lied. This was the man Joseph Estrada wanted to give a hero's burial. The fear. Anybody could be picked up at anytime for any reason by the military or the police. You could wind up a detainee, or you could just vanish, a "salvage" victim. If you protested against the government, you were labeled a "subversive" or a "communist" or both and you were summarily arrested. People the government didn't like were tailed by security elements, their telephones tapped. A student who spoke up to Imee Marcos was murdered. No two words were more invoked and abused for the purposes of oppression than "national security." People were afraid to speak out. Marcos logic being what it was, the silence meant the people were happy. The injustice. Only Marcos and his cronies, who plundered the economy, were protected by the law. Nobody else was. Arbitrary arrest, detention, salvaging and torture were the standard. The Defense Minister -- a man named Juan Ponce Enrile -- said in 1982: "We presume that priests and nuns charged with subversive activities are guilty until the courts decide whether they are guilty or not." On one occasion the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, someone named Enrique Fernando, servilely held an umbrella over Imelda Marcos' head. The censorship. It was only when rebel soldiers finally seized a TV station in the EDSA uprising that people saw in their sets just how big the crowds were. Up until then the media were strictly controlled. Journalists who wrote against the regime -- most of them were women -- were routinely "invited" for questioning by the military. There was no transparency whatever. There

were only three national broadsheets, the Times Journal, the Daily Express and the Bulletin Today, all of them offering the same pro-administration pap. The chief Marcos mouthpiece was a columnist named Teodoro Valencia. He died in 1986 and is now considered the "dean" of Philippine journalism. In 1983, when Ninoy Aquino was buried, at least one million people accompanied the funeral cortege as it wound its way through Manila. The next day, the Bulletin scarcely mentioned the story, instead playing up a story about a man struck and killed by lightning at the Luneta Park.(Recently, Joseph Estrada extolled the Bulletin as his idea of a good newspaper). The poverty. Poverty increased from 24% in 1974 to 40% in 1980 and why not? Imelda Marcos was using the Philippine National Bank as her private piggy bank. One of her ideas of dealing with the poor was to put up whitewashed walls around the squatter areas in Manila. The walls are still there. The corruption. There were suspicions about the Marcoses dipping into the public till. After EDSA, dazed investigators realized that the truth far outstripped the suspicions. The Marcoses had been screwing the public even before Martial Law. As early as 1968 Ferdinand and Imelda had already salted away more than $900,000 in Zurich accounts under the names "William Saunders" and "Jane Ryan." It was the initial deposit in what would turn out to be a mountain of loot. After having tracked down Marcos accounts and properties all over the world, investigators still aren't sure that they've found all the ill-gotten wealth. The US support for the regime. The US loved their bases in the Philippines and put up with Marcos as long as they could. When George Bush, who was US vice-president then, visited Manila for a sham inauguration of Marcos, he proposed a toast to the dictator, saying "we love your adherence to democratic principles and to the democratic process." Imelda Marcos speeches. They were terrible and they dragged on interminably. Among the things she said publicly: The Philippines is the center of the world, because that's the way it looks in a map. There's a cosmic hole in the Universe which shines radiation in the Philippines which Filipinos can tap to deflect intercontinental ballistic missiles. Her audience would applaud frantically. Cowards cheering a loony. The arrogance of those in power. It was called a "smiling dictatorship" but the only one who was smiling was the dictator. Actually, his friends and family were also happy. When his cronies got into business trouble they were bailed out with taxpayers' money. No investigations into

cartels and monopolies were allowed. Marcos "lifted" Martial Law in 1981 but continued to rule by decree. Later it was discovered he had signed dozens and dozens of secret decrees which he intended to flash at the appropriate occasions. During the 1986 snap election when an opposition official said that there had been cheating an election commissioner -- his name was Jaime Opinion -- sneered at him on TV and snapped, "that's a lie!" repeatedly. After EDSA Opinion went into hiding. When EDSA was in full swing, a rebel helicopter attacked the Palace with rockets. Marcos went on air and said "my family cowers in the Palace." He didn't get any outpouring of sympathy. Proclamation of Martial Law: On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand E. Marcos placed the Philippines under Martial Law. The declaration issued under Proclamation 1081 suspended the civil rights and imposed military authority in the country. Marcos defended the declaration stressing the need for extra powers to quell the rising wave of violence allegedly caused by communists. The emergency rule was also intended to eradicate the roots of rebellion and promote a rapid trend for national development. The autocrat assured the country of the legality of Martial Law emphasizing the need for control over civil disobedience that displays lawlessness. Marcos explained citing the provisions from the Philippine Constitution that Martial Law is a strategic approach to legally defend the Constitution and protect the welfare of the Filipino people from the dangerous threats posed by Muslim rebel groups and Christian vigilantes that places national security at risk during the time. Marcos explained that martial law was not a military takeover but was then the only option to resolve the country’s dilemma on rebellion that stages national chaos threatening the peace and order of the country. The emergency rule, according to Marcos’s plan, was to lead the country into what he calls a “New Society”.

Marcos used several events to justify martial law. Threat to the country’s security was intensifying following the re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in 1968. Supporters of CPP’s military arm, the New People’s Army, also grew in numbers in Tarlac and other parts of the country. The alleged attempt to the life of then Minister of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile gave Marcos a window to declare Martial Law. Marcos announced the emergency

rule the day after the shooting incident. Marcos also declared insurgency in the south caused by the clash between Muslims and Christians, which Marcos considered as a threat to national security. The Muslims were defending their ancestral land against the control of Christians who migrated in the area. The minority group organized the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Malaysia and pushed for the autonomy of Mindanao from the national government. The Philippines was praised worldwide in 1986, when the so-called bloodless revolution erupted, called EDSA People Power’s Revolution. February 25, 1986 marked a significant national event that has been engraved in the hearts and minds of every Filipino. This part of Philippine history gives us a strong sense of pride especially that other nations had attempted to emulate what we have shown the world of the true power of democracy. The true empowerment of democracy was exhibited in EDSA by its successful efforts to oust a tyrant by a demonstration without tolerance for violence and bloodshed. Prayers and rosaries strengthened by faith were the only weapons that the Filipinos used to recover their freedom from President Ferdinand Marcos’s iron hands. The Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) stretches 54 kilometers, where the peaceful demonstration was held on that fateful day. It was a day that gathered all Filipinos in unity with courage and faith to prevail democracy in the country. It was the power of the people, who assembled in EDSA, that restored the democratic Philippines, ending the oppressive Marcos regime. Hence, it came to be known as the EDSA People Power’s Revolution.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robles, A. (2000, March). What Martial Law was like Retrieved

from

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/666756/what-is-

inflation-what-causes-it-how-does-it-affect-us/story/

Retrieved from https:// http://www.philippine-history.org/martial-law-philippines.htm

Retrieved revolution.htm

from

https://

http://www.philippine-history.org/edsa-people-power-

Criteria Format

Grammar

Arguments

Citation of the Sources

2 Student did not follow the required format of the position paper (Times New Roman, 12, 1.5 spacing). All sentences are with writing errors.

Position Paper Rubric 3 4 Student did not Student did not follow MOST follow SOME the the required required format of the format of the position paper (Times position paper New Roman, 12, 1.5 (Times New spacing). Roman, 12, 1.5 spacing).

Position paper is in paragraph form, but contains several writing errors affecting communication of meaning.

Position paper is written in clear and accurate paragraph form with few errors.

Student supports the claim with some legal argument and provides some supporting information for argument Student did Student cited not cite enough sources, sources. which are not accurate and credible. The citation formats are incorrect. The paper has no reference lists.

Student supports the claim with clear and accurate legal argument, including information/evidence in support

Students did not support arguments with anything other opinion.

Students cited enough sources, which are accurate and credible. However, the citation formats are incorrect. The paper has reference lists with incorrect format.

5 Student followed ALL the required format of the position paper (Times New Roman, 12, 1.5 spacing).

Position paper is written in clear and accurate paragraph form with few, if any, errors. Student expresses written thoughts with flair and attention to detail, which exceeds expectations. Student supports the claim with thorough and concise legal argument, including information/evidence in support

Students cited enough sources, which are accurate and credible. The citation format are correct. The paper has reference lists with correct format.