Ferdinand Marcos His full name is Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr., he was born in 1917 in the town of Sarrat in Ilocos Norte, a region of the Luzon island in the Philippines. His parents, Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin were both teachers from high-status families. In 1925, his father became a congressman. He then surrounded* his children in the political world and thought them to be competitive from a very young age.
Ten years later, Mariano Marcos lost to Julio Nalundasan in a congressional election. Mariano’s opponent was killed on that night by Ferdinand Marcos. In 1939, following his father’s steps, Ferdinand Marcos graduated from the University of the Philippines in law* but, before he graduated, he was found guilty …show more content…
By this definition, we can understand that the decision to put a country under martial law is never planned and is only used in extreme measures but, Marcos seemed to be planning it for years.
Marcos signed proclamation n.1081, officially putting the Philippines under martial law, on September 21st 1972. On September 23rd 1972 at 7:15pm, he appeared on television to finally announced to the whole country that they were under martial law. In his announcement, he said he had signed proclamation n.1081 on September 22nd at 9pm. Not only did he lie about when he signed it, he had been planning it almost since his election. For example, the U.S embassy in Manila was contacted by Marcos on September 17th of the same year to warn them about the martial law. He also wrote to the military on the 14th to tell them he would put in place the martial law. He had been mentioning the martial law three years before he implanted it*, in May …show more content…
The martial law under Marcos By the time Marcos had announced the proclamation n.1081 on national television, the army already arrested 200 targets, they were mostly people of the media.
The victims
Nobody can be sure of the exact number of victims because, different organisation claim completely different numbers. Amnesty International, a very respected organisation, claims that 70 000 were imprisoned, 34 000 were tortured and that 3240 were killed. Danilo Vizmanos, an activist who was a Navy Captain at the time of the martial law under Marcos, estimates that there were 7000 victims of torture, 2000 executed and that 1000 disappeared. Professor Aurora Javate-de Dios, the executive director of Miriam College’s Women and Gender Institute, states that almost 60 000 were arrested in the first year. However, we know that the victims of the 1972 martial law, were the ones protesting for their rights, mostly people of the media as they had a platform to criticize the government.
Marcos never admitted to torturing anyone, he said he was only keeping peace and order. The only thing he admitted to was that his army would “salvage” these people, by that he meant that they would execute