Black

Martial Law has but one color: black as black can be.  

The lights went off on September 21, 50 years ago, when Martial Law (ML), through Proclamation No. 1081, was declared by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Sr. (branded by the world as a dictator for this act). 

Fifty years is a long time. But we, who experienced its abuses and atrocities, will never forget that darkest time in our democracy. And we pray it will never happen again.  

The numbers ML produced are daunting: 

Around 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Many of those are friends, once young, and kin. 

“Never look back to the dark times,” my grandma used to say when she saw me moping as a little girl. “Forget them; they will only hound you, and torture you all over again.”  

If she were still around, she’d most likely re-word that nugget of wisdom.  

Thirty one million people (if the results are to be believed) either chose or were paid to forget ML and voted for the dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr (Bongbong), to be our president today. This election has made us look back and remember—opening old wounds and rubbing salt into them once again, more vigorously this time.

Beyond mere remembering, we have learned hard lessons that we need to pass on to the next generations. 

It’s ironic that during Bongbong’s first 100 days, we would be commemorating the 50th year of ML’s proclamaton. 

It’s even more ironic that the relentless campaign to revise history by his supporters—to deodorize and eventually erase ML from our heart and mind—is paid by people’s money. 

Unless there's honesty and humility to admit that crimes during ML happened, and debts are paid per court decisions, there will never be a closure.

Professor Emeritus Clarita Carlos, appointed by Bongbong as the National Security Adviser, said these on national television prior to the election:  (I took the liberty of translating her Taglish into English): 

“If I were Bongbong, I’d admit that there were military and police atrocities because those are documented. They’re not anything contrived or imagined.  I have many colleagues and classmates in UP—they just disappeared Their parents could not even grieve properly. So admit it. Then make a categorical declaration, ‘These things will not happen in my administration.’ How difficult it is to say that?”  

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)

Then black will be no more.