How many more Filipino families will suffer? A Martial Law Webinar Summary

ML Survivor and historian Charo Nabong-Cabardo shared martial law declaration clippings

“Grabe, napakatindi noong mga nangyari noong martial law. Nakakatakot at nakakalungkot. Sana wala ng taong dumaan sa ganoong sitwasyon. Nakakaiyak ang mga pinagdaanan ng mga martial law survivors. Gusto ko yung advice ni Professor Malou. Dapat kung may trauma ka, dapat i-share mo, mas lalong masakit kung kinikimkim mo. Bilang isang trafficking survivor, naintindihan ko. Maraming akong nalaman tungkol sa martial law dahil sa webinar na ito. (What happened during martial law was very, very severe for our people. It was scary and sad. I hope no one goes through such a situation ever again. The experiences of martial law survivors were especially heartbreaking. I like Professor Malou's advice. If you have trauma, you should share it, it hurts more if you hide it. As a trafficking survivor, I understood that. I learned a lot about martial law because of this webinar)” - Cathy, caregiver, labor trafficking survivor

ML survivor and historian Charo Nabong-Cabardo recounted her student days as an activist, and her eventual detainment with her husband.

September 21 was the 50th anniversary of the martial law proclamation of then-President, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. Damayan’s Filipino Families & Martial Law Webinar last Thursday revisited the past with Damayan members. With numerous verifiable data and hundreds of thousands of accounts and testimonies, martial law was one family’s perpetration of widespread and brutal human rights violations, of systemic siphoning of national funds from the Philippines, all for official control of power under their family’s leadership. The lives and brutally-tortured bodies cannot be returned to their families, and the funds are still in the hands of the Marcos family, who are unwilling to return a single centavo to the Filipino people. These resources were used to fund the massive disinformation campaign to propel Bong-Bong Marcos into the top seat in the country. Many people were led to believe that martial law, despite its many recorded crimes against humanity, was a time of prosperity for the Filipino people and that the Marcos family were actually the “victims” of the opposition. It is clear that after 50 years, the lessons of martial law still need to be revisited. 

Martial Law statistics from Prof. Malou Turalde-Jarabe’s presentation.

The current state of Philippine economy from Prof. Malou Turalde-Jarabe’s presentation.

Damayan’s Filipino Families & Martial Law Webinar featured two survivors whose families were torn apart by martial law: One was Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough, whose husband was tortured and salvaged by the military. Her son never got to meet his father. The other was Charo Nabong-Cabardo, who was illegally detained together with her husband for almost four years. She gave birth to her son while in detention, and endured family separation from her two other children. Her son was almost four years old when they got out. 

Dakila’s Darlene Ramos-Gan poses this question and shares disinformation counter-campaign strategies

While there were massive disinformation and historical revisionism campaigns in the Philippines funded by the Marcoses, so were there counter-campaigns by nonprofit groups on-the-ground, who had to use creative resources to combat the money-fueled troll farms working to propagate lies. Dakila’s Education Director, Darlene Ramos-Gan gave a presentation on organizing communities for dismantling disinformation. Prof. Malou Turalde-Jarabe closed the webinar with the presentation on the brutal reality that Filipino families are facing in the Philippines right now. The massive disinformation campaign has resulted in” historical denial, red-tagging, vote-buying, harassment and intimidation, misuse and abuse of government resources, and circumvention and mockery of the law”. As of today, the PhP-USD exchange rate is PhP 58.49 = USD 1. Countless Filipino families are fighting over politicians who are getting richer exponentially, while Filipino migrant workers’ hard-earned money are losing value every single day. 

Dakila’s Darlene Ramos-Gan breaks down the characteristics of a just and humane society; one that every Filipino family deserves.

How many more Filipino families will suffer? Filipino deaths, whether by salvaging, by red-tagging, or gross poverty, are still pervasive and wide-spread under the same family. Where is justice when there is no acknowledgment of all the wrongs? 

Our reclaim to justice and democracy will not be in the hands of this President, or any other politician. It will only come to pass when Filipinos and Filipino families call out lies, stand up for truth and claim genuine democracy for their nation and their children. 

The webinar ended with a tribute to martial law survivor and social justice advocate, Lolit Lledo, who passed away last September 3 in the Philippines.