On the 53rd anniversary of Martial Regulation, we keep in mind the horrors of the previous and confront how its shadows nonetheless hang-out our current. From corruption and dynasties to privilege mocking the folks’s struggling.
On September 21, 1972, the Philippines was thrust into one of many darkest chapters of its historical past. The nation was plunged right into a decade of repression, worry, and impunity. Reviews from varied human rights organizations doc tens of 1000’s of arbitrary arrests, greater than 34,000 circumstances of torture, and over 3,000 extrajudicial killings (Amnesty Worldwide, 2022). Survivors recall electrical shocks, sexual violence, and public executions. Massacres and killing of over a thousand are seared into collective reminiscence (Magramo, 2022). The rallying cry of generations since has been clear and unwavering: “By no means Once more”.
However what does “By no means Once more” imply in a rustic the place corruption and privilege nonetheless thrive in broad daylight? In a rustic now led by the son of the very dictator we as soon as ousted, the place historical past dangers being rewritten not in books however within the lived realities of energy.
At this time, we see a special form of spectacle: youngsters of the highly effective flaunting their extreme way of life on non-public jets and in luxurious manufacturers, whereas odd Filipinos wade by means of floods, rebuild properties after storms, and queue for meals aid. Behind the filters and captions are public funds—cash that ought to be constructing colleges, strengthening hospitals, and making ready our communities for the following local weather catastrophe. It’s the identical story with completely different actors: energy hoarded by a number of, public belief handled like foreign money, and establishments bent to serve acquainted household names as an alternative of the folks.
For the Filipino youth, this isn’t only a political outrage—it’s a betrayal of our future. How can we dream of justice if establishments are captured? How can we communicate of equality when management is handed down like inheritance? How can we construct partnerships for progress if public belief is pushed on daily basis by impunity? The echoes of Martial Regulation usually are not confined to historical past books; they resound within the corruption we witness now, within the dynasties that dominate our current, within the tradition of entitlement we’re instructed to just accept as regular.
This is the reason we should proceed to face alongside measures that may pierce by means of the partitions of privilege. The Freedom of Data Invoice, lengthy delayed in Congress, is one such demand, as a result of the folks should know the place their taxes go, who advantages, and why. Requires a real anti-dynasty regulation are one other, as democracy loses its that means when energy is diminished to a household enterprise. These efforts usually are not small reforms; they’re survival instruments for a era whose future is on the road.
To recollect Martial Regulation is not only to mourn its victims. It’s to acknowledge the patterns of abuse as they reappear in new guises and to withstand them with every part now we have. If we scale back “By no means Once more” to a yearly slogan or a social media submit, we threat permitting the cycle to proceed. Reminiscence with out motion is betrayal. And silence, within the face of those new types of corruption, is complicity.
As we glance again into the darkish previous of our historical past, we should acknowledge that our position isn’t merely to commemorate however to behave. To teach our friends in opposition to disinformation, to push for laws that dismantles dynasties, to harness know-how for transparency, and to face in solidarity with communities left behind. We do that not as a result of it’s straightforward, however as a result of historical past reveals us what occurs once we do nothing.
“By no means Once more” should imply by no means once more to dictatorship, corruption, dynasties, and privilege mocking the folks’s struggling. It should additionally imply management by means of service, public funds for the general public good, and justice alive in our time.
Silence allows impunity—so to honor the victims of Martial Regulation 53 years in the past and to guard the long run, we should flip remembrance into resistance. As a result of “By no means Once more” will stay an empty phrase until we, the youth, be sure that it lastly stops with us.
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