MILLENIALS linked arms with Martial Law victims Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law 44 years ago, an era in Philippine history remembered for its marked brutality.
One of the protesters, Deemz Badilla had to skip class at the Tagoloan Community College (TCC) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, just so she could participate in the march rally held Wednesday.
Badilla, 18, is a second-year Community Development major at TCC and Anakbayan coordinator for eastern Misamis Oriental area.
Badilla said she had classes but didn’t attend to any of them so she could be with other like-minded youth in condemning the atrocities of martial law.
Badilla said she doesn’t want a repeat of martial law as she had heard tales of repression during that time.
“I don’t want it (martial law) to happen again during my generation. I hope President Rodrigo Duterte will not declare it,” Badilla said, referring to talks that the President is considering on proclaiming a state of martial rule in the country.
Renz Ybañez, 18, an out of school youth from Tagoloan, said her awareness of what happened at the height of martial law was through a documentary and from the recollection of the victims under the Marcos regime.
“I heard the atrocities being done to people during martial law, especially on the abuse of women. The crimes against women had an impact on me as a woman,” Ybañez said.
Ybañez is a former TCC student taking up Financial Management but had to stop when her scholarship with a cooperative was cut off due to an incomplete grade.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) in Mindanao, in a statement, said the campus press, along with the mainstream media, all over the country experienced grave human rights violations under martial law.
The group, it said, has a few alumni who became victims, some of them died, of the martial rule, among them Satur Ocampo, Judy Taguiwalo, Neri Colmenares, Emman Lacaba, and Lorena Barros.
For Datu Felix “Mangkayanaw” Bollozos, 54, the martial law brought back painful memories.
A tribal leader, Bollozos is a native of Gingoog City but had resided in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur for 25 years.
Bollozos said he was 10 years old when martial law was declared but he was in his 20s when he tasted the cruelties inflicted by state forces on hapless civilians.
Bollozos said he was working as a village worker in Kinamaybay in Esperanza in 1984 when two members of the Civilian Home Defense Force (CHDF), a militia group created during the Marcos years, picked him up and mauled him.
Bollozos was brutalized by the militiamen when he failed to give the exact names of two leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) who he personally knew.
“They (CHDF men) asked me to name the NPA commanders that I knew. I told them their names were Kumader Alex and Kumander Waway. But when it didn’t check out, they hogtied me and beat me all day long,” Bollozos told reporters Wednesday.
Bollozos was taken against his will and brought to a CHDF detachment in Barangay Maasin, Esperanza where he was tortured.
In 1986, Bollozos said he again experienced the viciousness this time under the hands of soldiers belonging to the 29th Infantry Battalion.
Bollozos said a certain First Sergeant Edgar Marao from the 29thIB stabbed him with the muzzle of an M16 rifle several times before passing out from the pain inflicted on him.
“I was accused of being an NPA supporter when they (soldiers) saw bags of rice inside my house,” Bollozos said.
The 10 sacks of rice which were left in his care every week was actually for the consumption of the workers of a rattan trader.
“The accusation was not true, but what really saddened me is that after all these years, I still have to get justice for what were done to me,” Bollozos said.
Bollozos added he filed for reparation in 2009 for the martial law victims but until now he has not received a single centavo from the government.