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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Philippines
Index
On September 21, 1972, Marcos issued Proclamation 1081,
declaring martial law over the entire country. Under the
president's command, the military arrested opposition figures,
including Benigno Aquino, journalists, student and labor
activists, and criminal elements. A total of about 30,000
detainees were kept at military compounds run by the army and the
Philippine Constabulary. Weapons were confiscated, and "private
armies" connected with prominent politicians and other figures
were broken up. Newspapers were shut down, and the mass media
were brought under tight control. With the stroke of a pen,
Marcos closed the Philippine Congress and assumed its legislative
responsibilities. During the 1972-81 martial law period, Marcos,
invested with dictatorial powers, issued hundreds of presidential
decrees, many of which were never published.
Like much else connected with Marcos, the declaration of
martial law had a theatrical, smoke-and-mirrors quality. The
incident that precipitated Proclamation 1081 was an attempt,
allegedly by communists, to assassinate Minister of National
Defense Enrile. As Enrile himself admitted after Marcos's
downfall in 1986, his unoccupied car had been riddled by machinegun bullets fired by his own men on the night that Proclamation
1081 was signed.
Most Filipinos--or at least those well positioned within the
economic and social elites--initially supported the imposition of
martial law. The rising tide of violence and lawlessness was
apparent to everyone. Although still modest in comparison with
the Huk insurgency of the early 1950s, the New People's Army was
expanding, and the Muslim secessionist movement continued in the
south with foreign support. Well-worn themes of communist
conspiracy--Marcos claimed that a network of "front
organizations" was operating "among our peasants, laborers,
professionals, intellectuals, students, and mass media
personnel"--found a ready audience in the United States, which
did not protest the demise of Philippine democracy.
Data as of June 1991
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