ILOCANDIA RUMBLINGS

Tyrants can never be heroes as human rights violations can never be justified by any circumstances. Martial Law is a dark period in our history, remembered for the large-scale murder, torture, and incarceration of political dissenters. Forgetting the wrong and heinous deeds of men in history is tantamount to distortion of truth and absolving them of their crime against the people. A dictator’s internment in a national pantheon, where individuals, worthy of emulation are buried sets a deadly precedent. It may be within the realm of the law, as the majority of the Justices see it. But on its entirety, the court’s ruling disrespects and discounts the spirit of the 1986 People Power, the court rulings on the rights abuses and thievery, and lives lost in reclaiming the democratic space that we enjoy at present. Remember that the past holds lessons that are vital for a better future. For a nation to move on from the horrors of Martial Law, first there must be closure. This requires the p...

(The original article was published by Northern Dispatch in September 2015. Photo grab from http://planetphilippines.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/headline.jpg) My mother and father have not yet bumped  to each other when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, so I can never claim firsthand experience on the matter. I rarely tell my friends that I grew in family who are fervent Marcos loyalist (especially my mother’s side), usually eaves dropping with conversations regarding the benefits from the declaration – the order it brought, the supposed development, and many more. In high school, I even choose to be part of the group who favored the declaration of martial law during a classroom discussion on the issue. This is the only instance that I can remember where the topic was deliberated with a certain degree of importance. I learned the extent and depth of martial law’s meaning and result when I attended a forum organized by the student council in a university I once attended....