Name: Carlus Alfonso C.

Margarico Section: BSMLS 1-G

Martial Law Critique

Martial Law details how President Marcus schemed the proclamation of martial law in the
Philippines during his time. When Marcos declared Martial Law in the Philippines, specific
events that he cited to justify his decision were the Communist insurgency and the ambush of
his Minister of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile outside the Wack-Wack subdivision. Both reasons, of
course, fall within the scope of the imminent threat that necessitates the declaration of Martial
Law.On the other hand, the story of Juan Ponce Enrile’s ambush has also been called into
question by Juan Ponce Enrile himself, proof that Martial law was unnecessary and Marcus
simply wanted justification to have power.

In an interview after Marcos was ousted from power, Enrile admitted that the entire affair had
been a hoax to steal power, one could say Marcus declared Martial law simply for absolute
power, which includes command over the Armed Forces of the Philippines to maintain law and
order, as well as exclusive decision-making powers for whether or not a person would remain
detained for any crime. Martial law indeed impacted the whole country and the people. The
declaration of Martial law was quite controversial, the majority of the people were against it
and others believed perhaps martial law wasn’t as bad as it seems. But, It Was shown in our
history how brutal Marcos did to the Philippines and he was labeled as a dictator of the country.
It was no secret that the crisis was getting worse at that time, thousands of people suffered
from this law in which they experienced being imprisoned, arrested, executed, and abused by
the military forces. No doubt, our history was dire just because of the decision on a stupid,
corrupted government.

Considering the fact that Marcos bribed some of the officials by giving each of them a watch. 12
of them were bribed to support his top-secret propaganda that was called the “Oplan
Sagittarius”, and the people behind it were labeled as Marcos’ Rolex 12.On the first days of this
proclamation, the country responded well. They also believed that the Philippines is sick,
rebellion against the government has been in power in some rural places, and communist
armed forces are trying to invade the nation. I also believed Marcus was drunk with power,
handling too much power than the average man can have.