Fifty-four years have passed but the wound inflicted by Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s imposition of martial law remains unhealed. The number of organizations engaged in commemoration nationwide indicates it; the government acknowledges it, with reportedly more than 17,000 police personnel deployed, and more on standby, to keep order.
The police deployment appears to be also intended to address the accompanying protests over graft and corruption in the highest places, with the large-scale looting of flood-control funds producing unprecedented public hardship and aggravation. There is as yet no satisfactory resolution to the scandal exposed by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself. Can the Palace, the roads to which are said to be on lockdown on the Philippine National Police’s recommendation, hear the long-suffering people of Bulacan crying for relief and justice?
Those grown old marking the years since the dictator signed Proclamation No. 1081 placing the Philippines under martial law are heartened to see their ranks ever strengthened by the young. It is the way it should be. (Marcos Sr. announced the deed on television on Sept. 23, 1972, saying he had signed the document two days earlier—apparently in deference to a lucky number.) Unfaltering in the struggle, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan has launched “Baha ng Protesta,” a flood of protest actions in strategic points in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. “The people’s protest is the answer,” Bayan declares. “The fight continues.”
Indeed, it does. The multisectoral Kilusang Bayan Kontra Kurakot is marching on Manila in full force. The Catholic Church is not keeping itself above the fray, as shown in the “Mass of Hope” organized by the One Faith, One Nation, One Voice at San Agustin Church in Intramuros, which the Protestant United Church of Christ in the Philippines has encouraged its members to attend.
Today’s activities are multifaceted. A candle-lighting ceremony is also planned at 5 p.m. today by the Buhay ang People Power Network, August Twenty-One Movement (Atom), Ninoy & Cory Aquino Foundation, and Bantayog ng mga Bayani. The ceremony intended to “remember the heroes, martyrs, and survivors who stood up for democracy, freedom, human rights and the Filipino people” will be held at the Inang Bayan Monument, Bantayog ng mga Bayani, on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City.
Among the organizers of the ceremony, Atom serves to represent part of the old guard in the people’s continuing fight, and also to illustrate how individual change can occur at certain significant moments.
Agapito “Butz” Aquino, along with Reli German, founded Atom shortly after the assassination of his elder brother, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., on Aug. 21, 1983. Atom became the vehicle by which Butz Aquino changed from the man about town managing a thriving business and dabbling in acting in movies and the stage, to a man of purpose and commitment.
Atom mobilized middle-class involvement in street protests against Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship. Currently led by Volt Bohol and others, it continues to work against government corruption and other issues.
Butz Aquino died in 2015. But his case as it illustrates the possibilities of change remains an interesting study. In an interview with the journalist Gemma Nemenzo in the fortnightly magazine Celebrity (since defunct) in November 1984, a little more than a year after his brother’s murder, he said: “Before Ninoy died, my life was comfortable and I left it at that. But after his death I began asking myself: So what if I’m comfortable? Is material comfort all there is to life? Suddenly my previous activities became meaningless. In my continuous search for fulfillment, I find what I’m doing now fulfilling. That’s why I’ve lasted this long, and will last longer, I’m sure.” CS
Read more: Martial law and the urgency of remembering
