Statement of the ILPS Office of the Chairperson on the 51st Commemoration of Martial Law in the Philippines
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle stands in strong solidarity with the Filipino people in commemorating the 51st anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines. Filipinos refuse to forget the dark years of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, and they implore the world never to forget it either.
We, ILPS, support the Filipino people in their call for justice to all victims of crimes and atrocities of the dictatorship, and their rejection of the current Marcos-Duterte regime.
With Proclamation No. 1081, Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s authoritarian rule resulted in the imprisonment of over 70,000 people, the torture 34,000, and killed a total of 3,240 people. The Marcoses shamelessly plundered PHP 500 billion from public coffers. Systemic and widespread corruption benefited themselves and their cronies at the expense of the Filipino masses. Their pillaging coupled with the crippling weight of foreign debt, brought down the Philippine economy.
Now, another Marcos, the dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. enters his second year in office. On his way to his presidency, he has continued to deny accountability of his thieving murdering family whose crimes remain unpunished to this day. Fascist attacks on the people have continued, and the Marcosian Martial Law mindset and climate of impunity are very much alive. Reminiscent of the Martial Law years, human rights violations are happening in the country today – the killings of innocent civilians by state forces, vilification of activists and human rights defenders, the use of ‘terror laws’ and trumped-up charges as wars on dissent, worsening culture of impunity, and corruption through bloated confidential and intelligence funds.
Anti-Terror Law as Martial Law
Through the continuing implementation of the so-called “Anti-Terror Law” under Marcos Jr., Martial Law is more like a continuing reality than a distant memory. The railroading of this law during the Duterte regime has shown the anti-poor and fascist government’s intention to prevent the people from speaking out against the worsening economic crisis and demanding change. As it was during Martial Law, state terror is being used today against the people. Workers unionizing and demanding higher wages are vilified and arrested. The law has been weaponized to red-tag peasant and fisherfolk communities defending their rights and opposing militarist interventions. There are escalating cases of bombing of rural and indigenous peoples communities defending their farmlands and ancestral domains from destructive foreign projects.
Similar to Marcos Sr., Marcos Jr. has also tended to US imperialism allowing US intervention in the Philippine economy, politics, diplomacy, and military. Wars and counterinsurgency have long been pursued by the US as a strategy against the peoples’ struggle for national democracy, freedom and self-determination.
Since 2001, after the 9/11 attacks, the United States has considered the Philippines its “second front” in its vicious war on terror, resulting in the presence of hundreds of military personnel and various bases across the country. Now, under Marcos, the US intensifies its acts of terrorism on the Filipino people.
As part of the global war on terror, the US launched 2002 “Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines” and the “Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines” in 2017. US backed anti-people legislations were railroaded with the passing of the repressive Human Security Act of 2007, now amended as the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020. This draconian law has eroded the fundamental rights of Filipinos and is now wielded as a tool for intimidation and repression. Based on the US counterinsurgency blueprint, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) under Marcos continues to employ tactics such as terrorist labelling and red-tagging.
In the same vein as his father, Marcos Jr. now enjoys full support from the US. The US-backed the Marcos dictatorship, with the US State Department affirming that Martial Law did not conflict with US interests after Proclamation No. 1081 in 1972. In fact, US imperialism staunchly supported the Marcos puppet dictatorship. The key figures in establishing this fascist regime included the US ambassador, CIA chief of station, AID director, USIA director, and JUSMAG chief, along with the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines based in the country. The US-Marcos dictatorship resulted from seven decades of vicious exploitation and oppression of the Filipino people by US imperialism and its local collaborators.
Continuing subservience to the US
Under Marcos Jr.’s leadership, the Philippines has increasingly aligned itself with the United States, becoming embroiled in US-led wars in the region. The US-Marcos Jr. tandem has earmarked $66.5 million for the construction of Enhanced Defense Cooperation (EDCA) projects in four newly-approved sites including air bases and naval stations in various provinces. Coupled with existing bases, EDCA now encompasses a significant number of army bases, air stations, and combined air and navy/ coastguard facilities which will be used for stockpiling military equipment and war materials and as springboards for US wars of aggression in the region.
During Marcos’ visit to Washington, a new Bilateral Defense Guidelines were adopted between the US and the Philippines. The guidelines stipulate that an armed attack on either country’s vessels, aircraft, or armed forces in the Pacific and in the South China Sea would trigger mutual defense commitments. This agreement not only allows US involvement in Philippine security planning and budgeting, including internal security but also promotes a comprehensive government approach to implementing US-directed defense strategies. The deal solidified Marcos Jr.’s puppetry to the US and heightened US intervention in Philippine internal affairs granting the US extraterritorial rights in the Philippines.
In his increasingly mad crusade of state terrorism and US subservience, Marcos Jr. is giving the military and its state forces free rein in conducting its heavy-handed attacks the Filipino people, while completely refusing to address the root causes of the ongoing armed conflict– landlessness, poverty, foreign plunder of ancestral lands, among others.
Hold the US-Marcos regime accountable
With this situation, the ILPS supports the Filipino people who are calling for international solidarity in their struggle to hold the US-Marcos regime accountable. With the lessons gleaned from the horrors of Martial Law, the Filipino people are geared for a rerun of their own valiant resistance. Let us amplify our calls to support their democratic and anti-imperialist struggles which have contributed to the advance of national democracy and social liberation in different parts of the world.
Never again to Martial Law!
Justice for all victims of human rights violations!
Junk the Anti-Terror Law!
Stop the killings! End impunity!
US troops out of the Philippines!
Abolish confidential and intelligence funds! Abolish the NTF-ELCAC! No justice, no peace!
Long Live International Solidarity!
#JunkTerrorLaw
#GlobalSolidarityPH
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