Martial Law

Signed by former president Ferdinand Marcos on September 21, 1972, Proclamation 1081 which placed the entire Philippines under Martial Law.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

On September 23, at exactly 7:15 pm, he appeared on television to formally announce it.

President Marcos built many roads, schools, houses, and other infrastructures.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

He could build and build because it wasn't his money that was being used, it was the taxpayers'. The biggest, most famous construction project, the billion-dollar Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, was an overpriced, graft-ridden structure which paid Marcos millions of dollars in kickbacks.

Under Marcos, the country was peaceful.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

The worst threat to peace and order was none other than Marcos himself. Historian Alfred McCoy estimates the Martial Law regime killed more than 3,000 Filipinos and made hundreds disappear. If there was "peace" in the country it was the graveyard silence produced by fear and repression.

 

The country was prosperous during the Marcos regime.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

When Marcos assumed the presidency, the country's foreign debt was US$1 billion. By the time he fled, it was US$28 billion. Martial Law sustained a plunder economy run for the benefit of the Marcos family, its relatives and associates.

In 1986, President Marcos could have ordered his troops to run over the citizens on EDSA but refused to do so, even if it meant he would lose.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

Actually he was urging his generals to attack, but in front of the TV cameras made a big show of concern over civilian casualties.

The Philippine democracy did not collapse during Marcos years.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

Filipino democratic institutions did not break down, either in the sense of an inability to maintain order or a failure to respond to changes within the society. The rising political violence after 1969 was to a considerable degree the creation of Marcos himself, first in trying to get himself re-elected and then in preparing a justification for martial law

The Enrile ambush in Wack-Wack was staged to justify Martial Law.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

Enrile revealed in 1986 that this ambush was staged.

Marcos meant well, but Imelda and the cronies ruined everything.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

He refused to share power. He kept a closet full of secret decrees. His word was law. The judiciary, legislative and military were his puppets. If Ferdinand Marcos could claim credit for all the nice buildings constructed during his regime, he should also take responsibility for everything else.

Marcos implementation of Martial Law was not corruption. He was simply exercising a legitimate power of the President to protect his people.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

Cloaking his efforts within a shroud of legality, Marcos activated his emergency powers while seeking to eliminate their checks and balances—the legislative and judicial branches. While declaring Martial Law is technically included among his powers, Marcos used those technicalities not to protect the people but to hold on to power.

Various human rights violations also happened in the Ilocos region during the Martial Law, despite public perception that the region was supportive of Marcos' administration.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

In Ilocos Norte, various farmers from the towns of Vintar, Dumalneg, Solsona, Marcos, and Piddig were documented to have been tortured, and eight farmers in Bangui and three indigenous community members in Vintar were "salvaged" in 1984.