By PROUT
On 21 September 1972–exactly 51 years ago–Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law, claiming that it was the last defense against the rising disorder caused by increasingly violent student demonstrations, the alleged threats of Communist insurgency, and the Muslim separatist movement in Mindanao.
His first action was to arrest his political opponents. With the help of the police, the armed forces, his family, and close associates, he was able to consolidate economic and political control all over the country.
According to Amnesty International, some 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 tortured, and over 3,200 killed in nine years of martial law. Ironically, during martial law, the communist insurgency expanded.
Unfortunately for the Philippines, a series of important new concessions were given to foreign investors, including a prohibition on strikes by organized labour.
According to Renato Constantino, “We must remember that the dictatorship did not only violate human rights and favor cronies, it served foreign capitalists and served them well.
It must be recalled that immediately after the declaration of martial law, the directors of the American Chamber of Commerce sent Marcos a congratulatory telegram. They were prescient, for under the Marcos administration foreign investors acquired one concession after another. Through the 1973 Constitution and a series of presidential decrees, the national objective of preserving the national patrimony for the benefit of the Filipinos was negated in the intense effort to attract foreign investments.”
(“A non-revolutionary government” published in 1986 from his book: The Aquino Watch)
Despite some initial growth in the country’s gross national product, workers’ real income dropped, only few farmers benefited from his land reform, and the sugar industry was in disarray. The less demand for coconuts and coconut products added to the country’s economic woes; the government was forced to borrow large sums from the international banking community.
Most troubling were reports of widespread corruption that began to surface with increasing frequency. The assassination of former senator Ninoy Aquino was the last straw that broke the Filipinos’ patience. It led to the 1986 People Power and the end of the Marcos regime.
Martial law is a reminder that we should be able to fight for our economic freedom, not mere political rights and privileges. PROUT–as a social theory–aims to create a condition where we all can live in comfort and dignity, knowing that hard work and diligence will pay off.
PROUT is designed so that our desire to change our values and attitudes to those that prescribe honesty and equal opportunity, empathy and kindness (not suspicion), love and caring (not impunity), and wellness and unity (not mudslinging nor name-calling) will come to fruition.
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