Groups push back vs efforts to revise martial law history

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — Stories of arrests, torture, killings and resistance were retold across the country as groups marked the 54th anniversary of the declaration of martial law on Monday, urging the public to remember its abuses and resist efforts to rewrite its history.

In Cagayan de Oro, the late journalist Hugo “Ka Jerry” Orcullo’s account of his 1983 abduction and torture offered a grim reminder of the abuses suffered by activists during the Marcos dictatorship.

Orcullo was abducted by Philippine Constabulary personnel along Velez Street on Oct. 14, 1983, shortly after having lunch with his friend Eliseo “Ely” Patlunag.

Article continues after this advertisement

About an hour later, unidentified gunmen entered Patlunag’s home in Misamis Oriental and shot him dead. Patlunag, a district population officer and Makabayang Alyansa chair, had reportedly been placed on a military assassination list.

FEATURED STORIES

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

NEWSINFO

Orcullo later recounted being tortured in a military safe house. He said his captors stripped him, forced him to sit on a block of ice, covered his head with a plastic bag, burned his face and ears with cigarettes, fired guns near his head and forced him to drink his own urine while demanding information about New People’s Army (NPA) leader Romulo Kintanar.

He was held at Camp 1Lt Vicente Alagar in Cagayan de Oro for two years before then-Gov. Homobono Adaza secured his transfer to the provincial jail. His brother Alex, also a journalist, was killed by state forces in Davao City in 1984.

Orcullo later became a seven-term president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club and regional chair of the antitorture group Selda. He died in 2020 at 66.

Fifty-four years after martial law, survivors in Mindanao said financial compensation could not erase the psychological wounds left by the period.

Article continues after this advertisement

Chona Lasaca, who was 10 when martial law was declared, recalled fleeing Lanao del Norte amid militarization. Decades later, she saw thousands of victims line up in Cagayan de Oro to receive compensation.

“Many received financial compensation,” she said. “But it could not repair the psychosocial damage borne invisibly by a generation.”

Article continues after this advertisement

Bai Inlaghay Undag of the Philippine Commission on Women said compensation could not erase the pain suffered by families who lost homes, freedom and loved ones. Prof. Tirmizy Abdullah of the Mindanao State University said Bangsamoro communities also endured violence and displacement that predated martial law.

Former NPA commander Ed Quitoriano recalled the lasting psychological toll of years spent underground, internal purges and revolutionary discipline. In his memoir, he said the experience damaged his identity and family relationships.

“Once you reach the end, it is very hard to return to your original self,” he said.

Cordillera resistance

In Baguio City, veteran activists used the role-playing card game Diktador! to revisit memories of martial law and indigenous resistance in the Cordillera.

The session at Luisa’s Cafe focused on the Chico River Dam controversy and the 1980 killing of Kalinga leader Macli-ing Dulag, who opposed the government-backed project that threatened to displace indigenous families.

Veteran activist Jeanette Ribaya-Cawiding recalled being a 20-year-old psychology graduate when Dulag was killed. The game was facilitated by Joanna Cariño, a former martial law detainee and torture survivor who later helped establish the Cordillera People’s Alliance.

Cariño also recalled the court-martial of soldiers implicated in Dulag’s killing and the vigil held by Kalinga and Mountain Province residents in Baguio during the proceedings.

‘Continuing abuses’

In Legazpi City, groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bicol held a rally at Peñaranda Park, denouncing what they described as continuing state repression, corruption and excessive US influence.

Bayan-Bicol chairperson Jen Nagrampa criticized laws and policies that the group said had been used against activists, indigenous peoples, human rights defenders and environmental advocates. She also questioned reported flood control allocations and opposed defense agreements with the United States.

Nagrampa urged the public to resist efforts to revise the history of martial law.

In Bacolod City, about 100 protesters also marked the anniversary with a rally. Noli Rosales, Bayan Negros secretary general, said poverty, landlessness, joblessness and the sugar industry crisis persisted under the Marcos administration.

Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.

Your subscription has been successful.

Rev. Fr. Melvin Fajardo of Human Rights Advocates in Negros called for government accountability and transparency, and accused authorities of continuing militarization on the island. —REPORTS FROM CONG B. CORRALES, VINCENT CABREZA, MICHAEL B. JAUCIAN AND CARLA p. GOMEZ INQ