Wenceslao: Martial Law

WHERE was I when then president Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law 46 years ago yesterday? That surely was a long time ago but when somebody asks me that, my mind would drift to the inside of Best Theater, an old movie house that used to be in the area now occupied by Gaisano South, when I was still in first year high school.

I couldn’t remember what the movie I was watching was, but Best Theater used to run a Tagalog film with a “double,” or an additional Tagalog film. Buy one, take one. But let me disabuse the minds of naughty readers out there. This was before the movie house so lapsed into a losing streak economically it resorted to showing soft pornographic films, known as “bomba” (don’t ask me why).

It was in Best Theater that I got acquainted with Pinoy action stars like the popular Fernando Poe Jr. (sorry Joseph Estrada fans, but I wasn’t into Erap at that time) and the lesser lights like Jun Aristorenas, Roberto Gonzalez, Rey Malonzo, Vic Vargas, Tony Ferrer, etc. There were also the comedians Dolphy and Chiquito.

Best Theater was near City Central School where I graduated from the elementary grades and where I learned to cut classes to watch movies. It had giant billboards in the area now occupied by the E-Mall that advertised its shows. I would cut classes every time the films of my favorite stars were shown. I brought that habit even to my next stop, the Cebu City National Science High School.

I had difficulty adjusting to quality secondary education in Science High, so I sought refuge in the habit formed during my elementary years. I cut classes and spent my free time in the movies, usually in Best Theater. So that afternoon of Sept. 22 when the martial law declaration was announced, even the moviegoers were disturbed. I heard whispers about it and thought I would be seeing military tanks roam the city’s streets.

That didn’t happen. What happened to such personalities as retired judge Meinrado Paredes and other student activists who were arrested in the military sweep that followed didn’t register in my radar. I was too young to process that historic moment for the country. Instead, my bigger problem was when our class adviser in Science High sought me out in our house while I was cutting classes.

“Where have you been?” my father asked me when I went home after the visit of our class adviser. “In school,” I answered meekly. That was when my father let out his anger, throwing a book in my direction. I knew it was over. Just as Marcos was strengthening his rule after seizing absolute power, I was forced to quit school.

The time when I rebuilt my life coincided with the period when the dictator shaped the educational system to conform with his goal of “reforming” Philippine society through what he called as “revolution from the center.” In Southwestern University where I transferred, I re-embraced education and study and went on to top my class. I became a conformist rather than an activist.

It was only when I was in college in the ‘80s when my eyes were opened to the abuses and oppression of the Marcos dictatorship. I ended up fighting that dictatorship long and hard after then.

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