COMPARISON

The Martial law in the Philippines gives a positive and negative impacts on the lives of the
Filipinos. The primary sources where the articles or studies written by authors during the Martial law
era and those are the people who experienced Martial Law first handedly. Based on my research, I
observed that primary sources focuses more on the positive side of the Martial Law. They gives
emphasis to the goal of the Martial Law, there subjects were the positive of objectives of the Martial
Law which is to stop the domination of CPP-NPA in the country. This is due to the increasing
terrorisms and crimes in the country that brings terror to the Filipinos. Martial Law was supposed to
be peaceful, it should discipline the citizens without violence. As what the newspaper says in
President Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law “But civilian government still functions; no military
take over”.

Martial Law was supposed to bring betterment in our country but everything didn’t go well
according to the plan. There are abusive militaries who abuse their powers to maltreat the civilians.
As what our interviewee who experienced Martial Law says, the abusive militaries takes the civilians
for granted. They were unfair and opt to violence if they weren’t followed. There were many victims
of injustices during the Martial Law and President Marcos’ failed to control the abusive militaries and
he failed to protect his people. This injustices during the Martial Law was the focus of the secondary
sources. They pinpoint the flaws of the Martial Law, they used the voices of those victims to go
against the late President Marcos.

In conclusion, we should look on the two sides of the story, we should avoid being one sided.. Yes
there are people who experienced peacefulness during the Martial Law, there are parts of the
countries which the Martial Law was implemented accordingly and rightfully. However, there are
also people who experienced cruelties and violence under the abusive militaries during Martial Law.
We should not invalidate the experiences of others just because we experienced better life than
them. Instead of arguing whether Martial Law was good or bad, we should start acknowledging that
Martial Law was the both good and bad. It brings positive and negative impacts in our country.