When the scenes of the past coincide with the present, what will you do to make sure the future won’t be rewritten?

As we remember the Marcos regime that haunted many Filipinos, let us take this time to press pause, and replay the dreadful episodes of yesterday. Today, we will rewind to the horrors that a dictator struck upon our country, and together, we will never forget. 

We will never forget the atrocious man, who stood tall in his ivory tower. Without any remorse, he ascended upward, ruthlessly trouncing 107,240 people. 

He had the nation wrapped around his fingers, dooming liberty as he stripped Filipinos off their basic human rights. Corruption became prevalent while he blatantly stole from his constituents, amassing a $10 billion fortune. He shut down news and media outlets, desecrating truth and veiling it with darkness. For 14 years, he oppressed those who opposed him and took away the voice of the masses. He became the bane of democracy.

As he continued to reach the top, the ends of his crusty Barong Tagalog trickled red, his heart couldn’t catch up with the loud gallops of his chest. He could already see how high up he is, but then, the skies bared a frightful sight before him.

Different leaders, different time frames, but similar occurrences…

He was taken aback when someone called for the president, but he wasn’t the receiving end. He saw another man, just a few years older than him, but exhibiting the same power, crashing, condemning, and fearing dissent just like him. The resemblance was uncanny, that he almost thought it was him, but it was 48 years later. The year was now 2020, but everything didn’t seem to differ from the past.

Without us noticing, the state of our country today is dangerously mirroring the dreadful events of the 70s. We are groveling closer towards yesterday, and we must stop history from cycling back.

The nation’s current outcries aren’t much different from before. We are demanding to stop the extrajudicial killings. The abuse of human rights during Marcos’ regime, with thousands of people dying and disappearing without a trace, mirrors Duterte’s drug clampdown that has claimed and terrorized innocent lives. The growing clamor of Filipinos asking to junk a law- the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, that harms our freedom of speech and expression, heavily resembles the Martial Law, with the intention of silencing people and subjecting dissenters with warrantless arrests. 

Furthermore, both presidents shared a common enemy- the media. During the ‘70s, there were rampant arrests of journalists, editors, and news personnel without undergoing legal procedures. Up to this day, they are still being targeted for being the critical watchdog of the government. 

It was reported that Maria Ressa, the founder of Rappler, has been detained multiple times, with eleven cases filed against her news site. The leading broadcast network ABS-CBN which had been shut down during the Martial Law to prevent propagandas against the government, after its long years of democratic journalism, has been seized once again after the denial of its franchise renewal. This took a massive hit to our right for information and is detrimental to the formation of public opinions, for the light that ABS-CBN has given us was doused by the man who has been clashing with the network ever since the start of his reign.

Different leaders, different time frames, but similar occurrences, and we, the people of today, must fight to be as triumphant as the heroes that resisted against the authoritarian regime of Marcos. We must not succumb to a one-man rule, to a tyranny of violence, cruelty, and injustice. 

It’s only when we realize that we are stuck in the same scene, we can press play, and move forward. The past episodes led us to what we have today, we should not let all the progressions be put to waste. When the scenes of the past coincide with the present, we must etch in our minds the lessons that our predecessors had left us and use our voices to stand up for what is right and unwaveringly vindicate the truth. Our future will not be written by a single man, it will be made with millions of hands creating together a tomorrow of and for the people.  

Sources:
Amnesty International. (2020). “Dangerous Anti-Terror Law in the Philippines Yet Another Setback for Human Rights.” Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/philippines-dangerous-antiterror-law-yet-another-setback-for-human-rights/
Aspinwall, Nick. (2020). “After Signing Anti-Terrorism Law, Duterte Names His Targets”. Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/10/philippines-law-terrorism-duterte/
Davies, N. (2016). “The $10bn Question: What Happened to the Marcos Millions?”. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/10bn-dollar-question-marcos-millions-nick-davies
Elemia, C. (2020). FAST FACTS: How Marcos silenced, controlled the media during Martial Law. Retrieved from https://rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/how-marcos-silenced-media-press-freedom-martial-law
Inquirer, Philippine Daily. (2019). “Fast Facts: The Marcos Martial Law Regime.”. Retrieved from https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1167808/fast-facts-the-marcos-martial-law-regime

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Danielle C. Roberto
Features staffer

Updated 7:45 PM September 23, 2020