21 CENTURY

ST

PRESENTATION FOR
MARTIAL LAW
WHY DID FERDINAND
MARCOS DECLARED
MARTIAL LAW?
• In September 1972 Marcos declared martial law, claiming
that it was the last defense against the rising disorder
caused by increasingly violent student demonstrations,
the alleged threats of communist insurgency by the new
Communist Party of the Philippines, and the Muslim
separatist movement of the
Moro National Liberation Front. One of his first actions
was to arrest opposition politicians in Congress and the
Constitutional Convention. Initial public reaction to
martial law was mostly favorable except in Muslim areas
of the south, where a separatist rebellion, led by the

RE
CLASSICAL LITERATU
MNLF, broke out in 1973. Despite halfhearted attempts to
negotiate a cease-fire, the rebellion continued to claim
thousands of military and civilian casualties. Communist
insurgency expanded with the creation of the National
Democratic Front (NDF), an organization embracing the
CPP and other communist groups.
2
 EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE
DURING MARTIAL LAW:

• Given the immensity and pervasiveness of violations, keeping records of violations, including precise figures, remains a difficult and
unfinished task to this day. One of the reasons why it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of human rights violations is the lack
of accountability and genuine processes of truth-telling to seek more detailed information and contribute to the fight against
impunity.

• A lack of justice and accountability can lead to further human rights violations and erasure of the horrors of the past fuels attempts to
revise history. Former President Marcos was never held accountable and was instead granted a hero’s burial with full military
honours by the Duterte administration in 2016. Amnesty International believes that all those suspected of criminal responsibility for
crimes under international law or other human rights violations should be brought to justice in fair trials, regardless of when and
where the crimes were committed. There should be no amnesties, pardons or similar measures of impunity for such crimes if such
measures prevent the emergence of the truth, a final judicial determination of guilt or innocence and full reparation for victims and
their families. International law states that no time limits should apply to crimes under international law, irrespective of the date of
their commission.

• The nine-year military rule ordered by then President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 unleashed a wave of crimes under

RE
CLASSICAL LITERATU
international law and grave human rights violations, including tens of thousands of people arbitrarily arrested and
detained, and thousands of others tortured, forcibly disappeared, and killed. During the martial law era (1972-1981),
and during the remainder of President Marcos’ term, Amnesty International documented extensive human rights
violations which clearly showed a pattern of widespread arrests and detention, enforced disappearances, killings and
torture of people that were critical of the government or perceived as political opponents. In an interview with the
organization in 1975, President Marcos told Amnesty International that over 50,000 people had been arrested and
detained under martial law from 1972-1975; those arrested included church workers, human rights defenders, legal aid
lawyers, labour leaders and journalists. Amnesty International also documented a pattern of torture in interviews with
prisoners from that time. In 1981, the organization released further research on enforced disappearances and
extrajudicial executions that took place from 1976 onwards.
3
THANK YOU!!!