A video of President Ferdinand Marcos declaring martial law in 1972 is one of the many images that people can access Martial Law Museum of the Ateneo de Manila University (martiallawmuseum.ph).
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. found himself faced with this question in an interview with CNN Philippines that aired on Tuesday: How would you explain to the youth of today the martial law era under his father, Ferdinand Sr.
“I think the best people who can explain it to them are the relatives who went through it,” Marcos Jr. said. “We have explained it. We have been explaining it for 40 years already, and I explain it by saying that the situation at that time was dire. We were fighting war on two fronts.”
He was referring to the Moro “secessionist movement” in Mindanao and the “dissident” countryside rebellion of the New People’s Army, the fighting component of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“These were people who wanted to bring down the government and the government had to defend itself. So that was my understanding. That’s always been my understanding,” Marcos said.
Among the issues hounding his presidential bid is his father’s martial law regime and the reported human rights violations that happened under it.
According to the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVVMC), 11,103 people had fallen victims to rights violations during the Marcos Sr. dictatorship.
But the 11,103 human rights victims were only those with approved claims for compensation under the Human Rights Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013.
According to Amnesty International (AI), 107,200 people were killed, tortured, and imprisoned during the martial law years.
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