The Philippines for the first time in 40 years will air Sunday the late Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos’ full television broadcast declaring martial law that led to two decades of brutal rule.
Showing the speech in full will ensure the public will “never forget” the atrocities during Marcos’s rule, which was marked by widespread human rights abuses that saw hundreds of activities killed, jailed or abducted by the Marco’s forces, the office of President Benigno Aquino said.
The speech is to be aired on government’s official interactive portal as well as the website of ABS-CBN television, the country’s leading private broadcaster once padlocked by the Marcos regime.
The video was from the archives of ABS-CBN and will be made available to the public beginning Sunday evening “exactly 40 years to the date and time of the original broadcast in 1972”, the government said.
The government has also posted online contents of Marcos’s personal diary, giving a rare glimpse into the mind of the late leader as martial unfolded.
Marcos signed the martial law order on September 21, 1972, but officially announced it to a shocked Filipino public two days later.
Newspapers and television stations critical of Marcos were shut down or taken over, while critics and political opponents were killed.
In his diary, Marcos wrote how his forces immediately arrested 52 personalities out of 200 targets, which included opposition figure senator Benigno Aquino — father of the current president.
Aquino was subsequently allowed to leave the country to seek treatment in the United States for his ailing heart, but was shot at the tarmac of the airport in 1983 upon returning him.
Anger over his death snowballed into a people power revolt three years later that finally ended Marcos’ regime, and installed Aquino’s widow Corazon Aquino as president.
Aquino’s son and namesake, Benigno Aquino 3rd, became president after winning election in 2010.
Source AFP
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