TORTYUR: Human Rights Violations During The Marcos Regime 1 Michael Charleston “Xiao” Briones Chua De La Salle University Manila “One would often get kicked if the military did not like your face.” -Bonifacio Salvador (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1999) People say, not just the young, but even the people who lived through Martial Law said that “Marcos is the greatest president.” They remember fondly that life was not that hard at that time. Because President Ferdinand Marcos imposed discipline and everyone was afraid of him, there was peace and order. And those who became victims of torture, they are not so many anyway, and most of them are really rebels and communists—the enemies of the state. Because little development happened after the 1986 People Power that toppled the Marcos dictatorship, people even blame that revolution for making their lives worse and imagine a return to an iron fist regime that would once again “discipline” the Filipinos for our damaged culture. It seems that the bad things that made the Filipinos revolt in 1986 never happened and it seems that the propaganda worked. Imelda Marcos (Foundation for Worldwide People Power et al., 1997) describes her husband’s regime, “It was a compassionate society, it was a benevolent leadership.” She also said (Malanes, 1999), “Martial Law is the most peaceful democratic time in Philippine History.” It was her delusion, and the regime’s expertise in information control made it the delusion of a large portion of the country’s population until today. For the truth be said, it was actually the darkest period in recent history. I. Postmodernism, Politics and the Teaching of History In the Postmodern school of thought, truth is relative according to point of view. So instead of collecting points of view in order to make a sound judgment of the past, there is the primacy of the quote. A point of view of one person becomes to many a historical fact rather than a historical point of view. Since many in the social media already discredited historical research methodologies and resorted to telling stories of the past through unsubstantiated videos and memes with great visual effect, exploiting and playing on the post-People Power frustrations of the Filipino people, many had believed that the Marcos Regime created paradise here on earth and that his critics only discredited him for political gain. 1 Part of the discussion papers that became the basis for the exhibit For Democracy and Human Rights by the Center for Youth Networking and Advocacy and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the official exhibit of the 40 th Anniversary of the Proclamation of Martial Law (Never Again, Remembering Martial Law @ 40 Committee). The exhibit was written by Xiao Chua, Marlon Cornelio, Adonis Elumbre and Alvin Campomanes. Also read at the 3rd Malikhaing Guro International Conference on Culture-based Education at Room D-201 of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities--Vietnam National University with a revised title "A Challenge to Postmodernism: Teaching Young Filipinos Human Rights in View of the Marcos Experience." Ms. Noella May-i Orozco and Ms. Veronica Mae Escarez are hereby acknowledged for their help in preparing the revised manuscript for future publication in the book For Democracy and Human Rights.