A VIDEO showing what happens when millennials meet martial law victims is going viral, logging more than a million views within 18 hours of being uploaded.
Posted on Facebook, the four-minute video by the group Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (Carmma), shows voters aged 19 to 22 being asked by an older interviewer what they know about martial law.
One young woman replied that she heard “people were disciplined and followed the law,” and there was a curfew.
“It was good for our country,” said another girl.
One young man said that while authorities were strict, it was “like how your parents are strict because they love you.”
All of them said they were in favor of martial law imposed by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
At that point, the interviewer introduces himself or herself as a victim of martial law. Danilo de la Fuente, one of the plaintiffs in a 1986 class suit filed against the Marcoses, recounted how he was tortured while in jail. He was electrocuted and was subjected to a lethal game of Russian roulette. One female interviewer related how she was detained and raped.
Shock, sympathy and embarrassment were some of the emotions expressed by the young voters.
The stories brought tears to some of the young interviewees. The young voters admitted they weren’t educated about what really happened during the administration of Marcos.
“Sorry. Please understand. I had no idea that happened during martial law,” one woman said as she cried.
“To this day, the true story of martial law is not being taught in schools,” the video said in the end. “It’s time to rewrite our history books.”
The video has received more than a million views, 45,000 shares and more than 3,000 comments within 18 hours of being uploaded.
Carmma spokesperson, film director Boni Ilagan, told Inquirer.Net that the video’s purpose was to connect with millennials and explain to them why martial law was bad and why the Marcos family should be prevented from returning to Malacañang.
Sen. Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator, is the leading vice presidential candidate, according to voter preference polls.
Ilagan said that even if the younger Marcos had nothing to do with martial law, the fact that his electoral campaign featured “whitewashing of the sins of his father” was one reason to campaign against him.
Ilagan said the group’s campaign would continue even after the May 9 election. “Whatever the result of the elections, there really is a need to institutionalize the teaching of martial law,” he said.