EPCC NEWS September 22, 2013 Martial Law in Cagayan Valley By Arturo P. Garcia When martial was declared in 1972, I was in Isabela. As an activist, I was still surprised by its declaration. There was a raging debate in the movement at that time if martial law will be declared. One group said it will not happen. While another group was preparing for it, Maybe I was in the middle that is why I was caught by the decration in a friend’s house while organizing the peasants in Isabela. The good thing, we found refuge in the Catholic Church of one of the towns in Isabela, I never thought that the institution that we branded as “cleric fascist” will give us a refuge during those trying times. I felt I have to write this article to ventilate what happened in that area of the Philippines. So much has been written about martial law most of it are based on personalities, individuals and urban based . most of it in Manila and how the movement reacted and went underground during martial law. From the safe haven of the institution we were able to collect tidbits, bits and pieces that virtually schoked me beyond my normal comprehension. But later, an old peasant, a Cathloc layman explained it to me. He said, “ You are now experiencing what we experienced during the Japanese Occupation. Those were hard and trying times. It will test the limits of human endurance, It will test your souls. Those terrible three years when the foreign invaders occupied our country was for me beyond comprehension. The sad thing, it was not the Japanese who are doing it now. It is a fellow Filipino. A fellow veteran of World War II, a fellow Ilokano, our very own president, Ferdinand Marcos.” That struck the blow into my heart. Months after trhe declaration e have to document and send overseas to foreign media the facts about the implementation of martial law as Isabelinos tell their stories to us in the Church through stories, confessions and documentation. Here are some facts that will make your hairs stand up and give you goose bumps; • More than 150,000 people from 150 barrios in the so-called Forest Region of East Isabela were ordered by the newly formed AFP Noreascom Command to evacuate. Literally leaving or abandoning their properties to the dogs. • These were the areas from Jones, Isabela from the south to Ilagan in the North. Even the the borderof San Pable near the Cagayan border were not spared from the “free fire zones’ • These brought to light what is happening now in Zamboanga City where more than 120,00 people are in the evacuation centers. • The Forest Region of Isabela was declared as a “ free fire zones” and anything moving are considered as enemy combatants. The same scenario we saw in Zamboanga City, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan and any place where there is conflict is what we can envision. • According to some accounts, scores of peasants were killed by the military“firing squads”for being suspected NPA supporters or sympathizers at the AFP camps in Frst Region. • Many KM or progressive activists who were identified by the military were rounded up in Santiago, Tuguegarao and other areas of Cagayan Valley. We tried contacting them but legal remedies were not available at the early stages of martial law especially in the provinces. I know most of them because we saw each other in conferences in Manila. Later we were able to know that they were “amnestied” after some time in detention in camps known as the PC Regional Command for Rehabilitation of Detainees or RECAD in short. Our area is called RECAD 1. We were not able to documented fully these facts due to the exigencies of martial law. All what the radio and newspapers broadcast were the victories of the military. Mass surrenders, amnesties of former subversives, death of this NPA commanders, former KM activists who were captured filled the papers and the air. All bad news, no good news. I became so numb that I preferred to listen to music and drama in the radio or read the comics than to cater to the martial law propaganda. I have been so sad listening to horror stories of torture, burning of houses, rapes and the brutality of the armed forces, that I learned to pray again while inside thee convent. I felt guilty that I was safe when my fellow activists were fighting, hiding in the mountains and the only time I learned how they are when they are killed or captured in deadly battles that occurred almost very day from that night of September 23, 1972 until the summer of 1974. From the highways, we can hear sound of helicopters, loud boom of mortars and the staccato of gun fires from helicopter straffings. I was able to learn the distinct sound of M14 rifles of the NPA and the armalites of the AFP. We can hear them from the Eastern side of the Cagayan River whenever there are encounters between the AFP and the NPA. You never heard these stories for the documentation of martial law has not achieved its full accountings. And then there is a bias towards the urban areas like Manila where the center of power resides. Like JK Rowling who documented for the Amnesty International in Rwanda and made her research as the inspiration for the Dementors in what she wrote the Harry Potter books, I start now the lonely task of recollecting my personal accounts about martial law. I have to do this no matter how hard and painful is the task of recollections. As I always say.”Lest we Forget.” ***
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 16:40:37 +0000
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