51 years of impunity: legacy of martial law

“It was a period of unmitigated tyranny and corruption in our history that we must never forget and, more importantly, must never allow to happen again.”

That was the core message – reflected on t-shirts, flyers, placards and streamers – that human rights defenders reiterated as protesters across the nation once more recalled Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972, and his 14-year dictatorship that followed.

“We find ourselves facing the same forms of repression with the enforcement of the counterterrorism laws that are essentially martial law instruments,” asserted Karapatan, the human rights alliance. Much like the Marcosian presidential decrees of the past, these laws are being used to silence dissent and stifle protest, said its secretary-general Cristina Palabay.

“We must stand against Marcos Jr.’s repressive measures, just as we stood against Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship of the past,” she exhorted the assembled protesters at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila. “From the regime of the dictator-father to that of the son, we have endured and fought against tyranny.”

(Founded in 1995, Karapatan has documented human rights violations in the Philippines under successive post-dictatorship administrations. Its annual reports, provided to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have been considered by the UN Human Rights Council in conducting its periodic review of each member-nation’s human rights situation.

(Many of Karapatan’s field workers and some regional leaders have fallen victim to state-sponsored extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arrest and detention, vilification and various forms of intimidation and harassment.)

Palabay pointed out that the