MALACAÑANG on Saturday said the Aquino administration was fighting “disinformation” about martial law with facts involving events that happened under the Marcos regime, described by President Aquino as one of the most “painful episodes” in the country’s history.
Communications Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III spoke after Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., a vice presidential candidate in May’s national elections, accused Mr. Aquino of sowing disunity.
“The tactic of the administration, and in fact, the tactic of all those who know right from wrong is to fight disinformation with facts… . What we are saying, like what the President said in his speech (at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Edsa People Power Revolution), this is not about the Aquinos versus the Marcoses; this is about the truth versus amnesia,” Quezon said on state-run Radyo ng Bayan.
The facts
According to Quezon, the following are the facts:
More than 75,700 people have filed claims with the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board (HRVCB) as victims of human rights violations during martial law.
About 70,000 people were detained, accused as enemies of the state.
Three hundred ninety-eight enforced disappearances took place between 1965 and 1986, an average of more than 30 disappearances a year between 1976 and 1978 alone.
More than 34,000 people were tortured.
There were 3,240 victims of extrajudicial killings, an average of about 50 cases every year between 1976 and 1978 alone.
Quezon stressed that during martial law, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos ordered the closure of seven major English newspapers, three Filipino dailies, one English-Filipino newspaper, 11 English weekly magazines, one Spanish daily, four Chinese newspapers, three business publications, one news service, seven television stations, 66 community newspapers, and 292 radio stations all over the country.
National debt
Quezon also said that in 1965, the Philippines had a national debt of P2.4 billion, which had ballooned to P192.2 billion by 1985.
“This means a total of P395 billion worth of national government debt at the end of 1986. This means that 58.63 percent of the GDP (gross domestic product) was given over to debt,” Quezon said.
He said the Presidential Commission on Good Government had recovered an estimated P170.4 billion worth of ill-gotten wealth from the Marcos family.