HISTO 12 Quiz 1 Cards 2 (Martial Law to EDSA Revolution)

What are the masks of Martial Law?

1. Smiling Martial Law:

• for an international audience

• for public and child safety regarding crime on the streets

• for parents who couldn’t control their kids, discipline (curfew & mandatory haircuts for boys)

• not hurtful/violent

2. Communists & Subversives:

• oppression is targeted at those who expressed rejection of the state, creating fear and forcing people to silence

• many people believed that they were safe if they were silent

3. Outright Oppression:

• Marcos kicked oligarchs (his targets) out of their places, seizing their companies and giving them to his cronies (friends)

• Signs of a fully-fledged dictatorship

What is Social Memory? According to Maurice Halbwachs and Paul Recur…

• is constructed when a community or society combines memories of an event that present as a malleable interaction between discourses, cultures, traditions, and individual experiences.

• Memory is not purely individual, but is shaped by external factors such as family, religion, age, etc.

• Paul Recur (the dangers of memory) = memory can be manipulated politically, “forgetting historical violence can normalize authoritarianism”

Structural Trauma vs. Historical Trauma according to Dominick LaCapra

Structural:

• everyone is subjected to it, thus no identifiable victims

• is a “non-event,” a constant, a state of being of society

Historical:

• specific event that affects specific people

• e.g. victims of torture and warrantless arrests during Martial Law

How does Martial Law in the Constitution differ from 1935 to 1987

1935 (Marcos era): more ambiguous and open to interpretation

• “imminent danger thereof”

• no time limit

• no involvement of Congress

1987: stricter

• 60-day limit

• removal of “imminent danger thereof”

• president must submit a report to Congress for approval, also when an extension is needed

• privilege of the writ of habeas corpus is suspended only when the suspect has formal charges

  • during suspension, arrested person must be judicially charged within 3 days

• state of Martial Law does not override the constitution

What is the privilege of writ of habeas corpus?

is an order coming from the court to immediately release the prisoner if the court finds out that the detention is without legal cause or authority

[CASE] Was there graft and corruption during Martial Law? How much did the Marcoses earn from their presidency?

G.R. No. 152154 (July 15, 2003)

• the supreme court ruled that over 25 billion

  pesos worth of Marcos assets were

  considered ill-gotten wealth. Assets were kept in Swiss bank accounts

• Ferdinand Marcos = William Saunders

• Imelda Marcos = Jane Ryan

[CASE] What are the developments of the Sandiganbayan asset claims vs. Imelda Marcos

Civil Case No. 0141

• A forfeiture case that aimed to recover ill-gotten assets from Imelda Marcos

• The PCGG (Presidential Commission on Good Government) stated they will no longer present evidence for unresolved properties, as they already covered some assets

Result:

• Proceedings for the remaining listed properties were closed

[CASE] 2018 Graft Conviction Still Pending Appeal

• Criminal Case against Imelda Marcos for:

  • 7 counts of graft

  • violations for holding and creating Swiss bank accounts

  • alleged stealing of public funds as the Minister of Human Settlements

• She is subject to:

  • penalties

  • prison sentence

  • disqualification from holding public office

Result:

• no final ruling

• she hasn’t been imprisoned due to:

  • old age

  • humanitarian considerations

What is a Conjugal Dictatorship according to Primitivo Mijares?

• Privitivo Mijares was the chairperson of the National Press Cub and spearhead of the Media Advisory council

• his job was to control and censor media in 1972, the height of M.L.

• he was privy to the Marcoses lives

• he betrayed them in 1974, saying that he had damning info on the Marcoses.

• he was offered 100,000 USD to be silent, but he spoke out

• “The Conjugal Dictatorship” was a book written in 1976 by Mijares, the decade after M.L. was proclaimed, exposing the lives of the Marcoses

• it means that both parts of the couple exercised their own kind of power on the people

• especially Imelda, who played a larger role than most first ladies

• using her charm, beauty, and feminine persuasion, she swayed leaders as a diplomat

Why do human rights exist?

• Because of the perception that common citizens are more vulnerable than those in power

• in the 1935 and 1973 constitutions, it states that (1) No person shall be deprivedof life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws. (2) Private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.

According to the Human Rights Violations Victims' Memorial Commission, what were human rights violations under M.L.?

• 3,257 EJK

• 35,000 torture cases

• 77 enforced disappearances

• 70,000 arbitrary incarcerations

Positive vs. Negative Revisionism

Positive

history changes based on:

• newly discovered sources

• need for fresh perspectives (e.g., when time period and ideologies shift)

also contains:

1. significance-driven revisionism (historians highlight what they consider important about the past that has the potential to give a better understanding of the present, rather than focusing on new evidence)

2. value-driven revisionism (evaluating historical events through the lens of different sets of values, rather than focusing on new evidence)

Negative

• manipulation and distortion of history/facts

• lacks a scientific foundation, i.e., revised without proper evidence

• corruption of historian’s duty to truth

According to Tucker, it also

• denies historical guilt

• can promote self-respect for an individual or group (e.g., glorifying the Marcoses)

• eliminates a sense of alienation, through conspiracy theories, nuanced and complex events are made simple and purposeful

What is Marcos’s Bagong Lipunan?

• A vision for the Phllippines Marcos wanted to implement, inspired by Indonesia, using the years of Martial Law to realize this vision.

• He wanted the poor and privileged to unite and work for the common goals of society and liberate the Philippines

• He also instituted the Kabataang Barangay led by his daughter, Imee, wherein kids aged 15-18 were sent to mandatory rural camps to do volunteer work

What were the reasons Marcos’s decline? (6)

1. Reformist Opposition: aka legal opposition, members of the upper-middle class, use of non-violent tactics advocating for political reforms, not united but had different groups with different motives, which was tolerated by Marcos so long as he had the support of the masses or that they couldn’t replace him

• formation of the LAKAS NG BAYAN (LABAN) PARTY OF FORMER SENATOR BENIGNO “NINOY” AQUINO JR, the primary reformist movement

2. Revolutionary Opposition: showed that uniting of the rich and poor won’t work or the Bagong Lipunan wouldn’t work

3. Religious Opposition: weaving in politics in sermons, churches vocal against the dictatorship and holding mass protest actions

4. Marcos’s Declining Health: Marcos was facing illnesses, which were kept private from the public, but were visible in his puffy face. This weakened his public image as a “strong man”

5. Collapse of the Economy: failed projects, which made the PH rely on mass borrowing

   (e.g. Bataan nuclear power plant - largest project in PH history, which was largely funded by huuuge loans from an export-import bank in Washington DC. 277 million in direct loans and 367 million in loan guarantees were approved by bank chairman William J. Casey, a huge Marcos supporter. But, the power plant never became operational due to fears of the Chornobyl accident. It was never revived because future presidents didn’t want to bring back a Marcos project)

6. Assassination of Ninoy Aquino: He chose to arrive (and die) on August 21, 1983, the day of the Miranda Plaza bombing. The case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence against Marcos. Marcos was still president at the time, despite Martial Law being lifted. The masses were not happy, and 7 million attended Aquino’s funeral procession.

Event leading to the snap election

(November 1985) In an American TV show hosted by David Brinkley, Marcos was asked if he still had the trust and confidence of the Filipinos. Marcos said yes; if I called a snap election, I would win. He even invited members of US congress to witness, in an attempt to gain international support

Happenings of the snap election

• On February 7, 1986 thousands of registered votes found their names missing from the lists, approx 850 foreign correspondents witnessed the rigging

• On February 9, 35 COMELEC members and operators at the tabulation center walked out in protest against the blatant and obvious cheating

Beginnings of civil disobedience

Tagumpay ng Bayan Rally:

• Cory Aquino speaks to 2 million people, asking for civil disobedience and boycotting of Marcos + cronies. A delegation of 44 international delegates from 19 countries reported their witness of anomalies in the election results

Coup plot by the RAM

RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) = established in 1982 by Fidel V. Ramos and Juan Ponce Enrile, a small group that organized a coup d etat (a sudden and illegal seizure of government power, forcing the removal of leaders). Both founders harbored resentment towards Fabian Ver, the Commanding Officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, a Marcos loyalist

• planned for a Christmas coup in 1985, but it was cancelled because of the announcement of the snap elections. They instead planned to do it after Marcos won again (“H-Hour” 2 AM on Feb 23, 1986)

• But, they had no proper command experience to push through

• Ver knew about the coup and planned a trap accordingly

Call for people power

Cardinal Sin, over radio veritas, asks the people to camp out and protest at Camp Aguinaldo. This prompted the EDSA people power revolution.

EDSA people power revolution proper

• February 22-25, 1986 at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue

• peaceful protest to remove the dictator

• Feb 25 - Cory Aquino and Salvador Laurel took their oaths as presi and vice president

• Marcos was forced to depart and moved to Hawaii

Marcos dies

• Marcos was hospitalized for kidney, lung, and heart diseases, pneumonia and bacterial infections

• He died at 72 years old at 12:40 AM

Marcos’s body returns to PH

• 1992, Aquino administration barred the return of Marcos to avoid the rekindling of political violence

• A year later, in 1993, President Fidel V. Ramos permitted the body to return

[CASE] Marcos’s 2016 burial intentions in LNMB

G.R. 225973, November 8, 2016

1. By allowing Marcos to be buried in LNMB, would the leaders be abusing their powers?

2. Would this burial violate the 1987 Constitution?

Facts: President Duterte allowed the body to be buried there.

Result: Dismissed: The Supreme Court found that it’s under the president’s discretion to decide who can be buried at LNMB. People buried there will not be treated as heroes. The place is merely a national memorial shrine.

Supreme Court decision: 9 in favor and 5 opposed to the burial of Marcos at LNMB