i was a child during the martial law years. too young to realize anything was amiss, specially since we lived in baguio. baguio was a favored city, and my grandmother and father hailed from ilocos. we had sports equipment for barangays, uniforms, the convention center, and active kabataang barangay officials. 1986 came and i, with all the wisdom of an 11 year old wearing a marcos pa rin jacket argued with our principal miss ruiz (may she rest in peace) that marcos was good and deserved to stay in power. after a while she told me i didnt know what i was talking about. i was in denial. of course i knew what i was talking about. i lived a charmed life. i knew nothing of the travails of living under martial law. all i knew was that my grandmother knew the marcoses and they were good to her. after the 1986 people power all i could remember was singing handog ng pilipino sa mundo and magkaisa, which they taught us in school. that was it. then i went to high school. i learned that two of my classmates were born in jail because their parents were student activists. i started asking questions. it turned out that things were not as they seemed to my young self. i learned that my dad was almost put in jail for sponsoring a play that the administration felt mocked the dictator. artistic license and the fact that my dad was ilocano saved him. i learned about curfew, and haircuts for the boys. i learned that my aunts house was raided on suspicion of harboring a student activist. i learned about the disappeared. and the families they left behind. these days i know how but things are in the philippines when people start saying buti pa nung martial law..... at what cost? people lost their lives, and many lost their loved ones. there was no freedom to talk, or criticize. there was torture, pain, fear, suffering, and death. for many of the families of those who disappeared, there was no closure and perhaps there never will be. i am fortunate i didnt live through martial law as most people knew it. but that did not stop me from asking questions and learning the truth. so for the younger generations out there, ask. there will be many who will have something to say. dont believe everything you read. seek answers from those who lived through martial law, and survived. sure there were things to be thankful for. learn about those, too, because they are part of our history. but do not let those things blind you to the truth of what happened in those years, when freedom was a pipe dream, and -- to put it into context - when even posting a status message (even seemingly) against the government could cost you your life. and maybe you will understand why people say never again to martial law. why i say, never again. and i hope you, too, will say never again.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 05:16:13 +0000
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