Bumps (7)

HALAW ang mga sumusunod sa aking pangalawang aklat “BUMPS: Fifty Years of Dictatorship and Democracy in the Philippines (1972-2022).” Bahagi ito ng unang tsapter kung saan tinalakay ko kung paano idineklara ni Ferdinand Marcos ang batas militar noon 1972. Pakibasa:

1978 INTERIM BATASANG
PAMBANSA ELECTIONS
THE perfidious act of Ferdinand Marcos to replace the Interim National Assembly (INA) with a totally different body, the Interim Batasang Pambansa (IBP), was consummated in the plebiscite on Oct. 17, 1976. The IBP was totally different to the INA. While the INA was proposed to have the 320 delegates of the 1971 Constitutional Convention and the more than 144 members of Congress to comprise the transitional legislative body, the IBP only had 120 members, of which its members were all elected on a regional basis. Marcos did not immediately convene the IBP. It took him more than a year to convene it.

Marcos was an autocrat by that time. He had the 1973 Constitution ratified even under dubious circumstances to back his authoritarian government. He eliminated the traditional politicians and “oligarchs” whom he despised. But he still believed in elections as the processes to justify his martial law government and present a façade of political legitimacy, normalcy, and stability. From his legalistic mind, elections make his one-man rule palatable to the Filipino people and the international community. In early 1978, Marcos announced that elections for the members of the Interim Batasang Pambansa would be held on April 7, 1978. Immediately, the political processes started to grind to prepare for the elections of the IBP, the legislature under the 1973 Constitution. It was the first elections to be held since 1971.

Initially, the political opposition called for a boycott of the elections because it did not foresee open, clean, honest and orderly elections with Marcos at the political helm. The elections would just legitimize his illegal stay in power since his term of office in the 1935 Constitution under which he was elected in 1965, ended in 1973. But a bigger faction of the political opposition led by Lorenzo Tanada, a former senator who was then pushing 80, opted to participate. Tanada, with the help of combined socdem and natdem activists, formed the Lakas ng Bayan, or Laban. Benigno Aquino Jr., who was in jail, led the 21-man Laban ticket in Metro Manila.

LABAN TICKET. Aside from Ninoy Aquino, the following composed the Laban ticket: Jerry Barican, fiery student leader of the early 1970; Alex Boncayao, labor leader who joined the NPA and was later killed in a Nueva Ecija encounter with the military; Felicisimo Cabigao, former Manila vice-mayor; Juan T. David, human rights lawyer, who represented Ninoy Aquino before a military commission and Jose Ma. Sison in a civil court; Jaime Ferrer, former chair of the Comelec; Neptali Gonzales, Rizal congressman who later became a senator; Teofisto Guingona, Jr., Con-Con (Constitutional Convention) delegate who later became a senator and vice president; Trinidad Herrera, community leader in the depressed Manila district of Tondo; Primo de Leon, former Manila councilor; Cesar Lucero, former Manila councilor from Tondo.

Others were Ernesto Maceda, the disgruntled former executive secretary of Marcos , who joined the opposition and later became a senator in the post-Marcos Senate; and Antonio Martinez, doctor and hospital owner who later became the mayor of Caloocan City; Ramon Mitra, Jr, a pre-martial law senator who later became the speaker of the House of Representatives under the Cory Aquino government; Aquilino Pimentel, Jr, Con-Con delegate who later became a senator and Cabinet member.; Charito Planas, political leader in Quezon City; Napoleon Rama, journalist and Con-Con delegate; Alejandro Roces, prolific writer and former Cabinet member; Francisco Rodrigo, former senator; Ernesto Rondon, radio commentator and Con-Con delegate; and Emmanuel Santos, Con-Con delegate and businessman.

Marcos answered the power-packed ticket of the political opposition by forming his own coalition – the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) and fielding wife Imelda to face Ninoy Aquino and other candidates. But the Imelda-led KBL ticket Marcos fielded in Metro Manila was a weak ticket. Half of the candidates were unknown to the public. The KBL ticket was composed of the following: Emilio Abello, Sr., Estanislao Alinea, Jr., Jose Bengzon, Jose Conrado Benitez, Manuel Camara, Fred Elizalde, Gerardo Espina, Alejandro Fider, Pablo Floro, Edgar Ilarde. Querube Makalintal, Roberto Oca, Jr., Vicente Paterno. Waldo Perfecto, Ricardo Puno, Rogelio Quiambao, Carlos P. Romulo. Januario Soller, Jr., Arturo Tolentino, Rolando Zamora. The KBL as a political coalition representing the Marcos forces continued until the fateful 1986 EDSA Revolution, which toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

NOISE BARRAGE. The April 7, 1978 elections for members of the Interim Batasang Pambansa were not the only story. The bigger story took place on April 6, or the eve of the elections when the political opposition successfully led and held a supposed hour-long noise barrage that started at 7 pm but lasted until past midnight and spilled over the adjoining provinces of Rizal, Bulacan, Laguna, and Cavite. Ordinary citizens got metallic objects and struck them hard to create noise, honked their cars, shouted anti-Marcos slogans, burned old tires, and gathered for impromptu rallies in many parts of the metropolis. The noise barrage was so successful, sending chills to the spines of Marcos and the military generals, as they felt helpless for the first time and could not anything to stop the spontaneous revolt of the people.

The following day, the KBL ticket won over the Laban ticket mainly due to the practice of bloc voting and alleged massive cheating committed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), who by that time was led by a notorious Marcos acolyte – Leonardo Perez, a senator, who became unemployed when Marcos closed Congress upon the 1972 martial law declaration. “Those virtual unknown beat Ninoy Aquino? How come?” – this was the bitter refrain of many citizens, who could not believe that the Laban ticket suddenly lost despite the massive noise barrage on the eve of the historic elections. But their loss did not deter the Marcos critics from forming the April 6th Liberation Movement. But this is another story.

In Region 7, which covers the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental, Bohol, and the subprovince of Siquijor. the Marcos candidates lost miserably leading to the victory of Pusyon Bisaya, a loose coalition of anti-Marcos elements in that region, which had Cebu City as its epicenter. The entire 13-man ticket of Pusyon Bisaya won over the KBL to function as the opposition in the Interim Batasang Pambansa. They were Natalio Bacalso, Bartolome Cabangbang, Eutiquio Cimafranca, Alfonso Corominas, Jr., Hilario Davide, Jr., Filemon Fernandez, Jorge Kintanar, Valentino Legaspi, Mariano Logarta, Enrique Medina, Jr., Dominador Pernes, Jesus Villegas, Julian Yballe. They were derisively described as “the opposition within the establishment.”

1981 ‘PAPER LIFTING OF MARTIAL LAW.’ The Marcos authoritarian rule functioned but not without the usual dosage of criticisms in the international community. Marcos was widely criticized for the reported massive human rights violations. He was perceived to have been overstaying in power. He hardly had any political mandate. After the IBP elections, Marcos launched a public relations campaign to deodorize his regime to soften its negative image before the world community. On January 17, 1981, Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Proclamation 2045, which formally lifted the proclamation of martial law. Since it retained many of his powers, including the power to legislate under Amendment No. 6, the lifting was seen to have been a “paper lifting.” It was not genuine, as Marcos did not pave the way for the return of democracy. His government was still authoritarian in form and substance.

The paper lifting of martial law was timed to prepare for Pope John Paul II’s first of two visits to the Philippines and the inauguration of newly elected U.S. President and Marcos ally Ronald Reagan. His nemesis Diosdado Macapagal said the paper lifting of martial was “in name only, but not in fact.” Amendment No. 6 allowed Marcos to legislate and he used this extraordinary power even though the Interim Batasang Pambansa existed and in session. On February 17, 1981, Pope John Paul II, on his third year of his papacy, arrived in the Philippines for what was billed a two-day “pastoral visit,” where he beatified Blessed Lorenzo Ruiz, now a saint. At that time, Marcos was criticized for violating the human rights including people, who were caught in the communist insurgency. The Roman Catholic Church functioned as a refuge, or sanctuary of those people who were persecuted by the martial law apparatus. Pope John Paul II did not lose sight of the human rights abuses and openly criticized Marcos, who could only unabashedly kneel in front of the Pope and mumble faint excuses. The Pope said:

“Even in exceptional situations that may at times arise, one can never justify any violation of the fundamental dignity of the human person or of the basic rights that safeguard this dignity. Legitimate concern for the security of a nation, as demanded by the common good, could lead to the temptation of subjugating to the State the human being and his or her dignity and rights. Any apparent conflict between the exigencies of security and of the citizens’ basic rights must be resolved according to the fundamental principle—upheld always by the Church—that social organization exists only f?r the service of man and for the protection of his dignity, and that it cannot claim to serve the common good when human rights are not safeguarded.”