Philippines releases secret martial law records

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine military said Wednesday it is making public the records of its actions during dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s martial rule from 1972-1981, when he used the armed forces to crush opposition.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said he hoped the declassification of the secret documents would bring closure to a troubled period in which tens of thousands allegedly suffered human rights abuses. Many victims are still missing to this day.

Commission on Human Rights chief Loretta Ann Rosales, whose office will take custody of the documents, said she hoped they would shed light on the torture, extrajudicial killings and other abuses allegedly committed at the time.

“The… (military is) to make them available for historical and other public purposes and thereby start a process of healing based on truth, transparency, fairness and justice,” Gazmin and Rosales said in a joint statement.

Rosales said these documents would help to “reconcile and develop the healing process” between civil society groups and the military, adding that they will be made public so they can be studied by schools, legislators and survivors of the martial law era.

It was signed as the nation marked the 39th anniversary of Marcos’s imposition of martial rule, when he shut down Congress, arrested thousands of opposition figures, journalists and critics, and ruled by decree.

Besides Rosales and Gazmin, present at the turnover ceremony were Bohol Representative Rene Relampagos, House chairman on the committee on human rights; Dr. Fermin de Leon, National Defense College of the Philippines president; Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates chairman Teodoro de Mesa; and AFP deputy chief of staff Major General Anthony Alcantara.

De Leon expressed appreciation and support for the turnover of the documents which, he hoped, would reverse the political ill effects of martial law.

Congressman Relampagos said these documents would teach the youngsters, who never experienced Martial Law, to “savor the freedom they now enjoy.”

Marcos, who was toppled in a bloodless popular revolt in 1986 and died in exile in Hawaii three years later, had said martial rule was needed to save the country from a communist insurgency.

Rosales told reporters: “We have 10,000 recorded (human rights) victims, but I believe there were many more…. many of them were nameless, and those who were thrown in jail alone number more than 30,000.”

And Gazmin said: “We admit there were abuses during that time, but we’ll have to check the documents to see if these were recorded.”

Rosales herself, as well as the politician father and namesake of incumbent President Benigno Aquino, were among those detained by Marcos.

Rosales said she was raped while in a military prison.

She received a first batch of the records on Wednesday. But she said it would take a long time to receive and go through all of the documents, which she described as being enough to fill up the officers’ club of the Philippine military headquarters.

Rosales said that although the post-Marcos governments swore off torture, such abuses were still being committed by some isolated elements of the armed services. With Kate Evangelista and Matikas Santos, INQUIRER.net

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TAGS: Martial law, Military