On the 53rd anniversary of Martial Regulation, we bear 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, concern, and impunity. Experiences from numerous human rights organizations doc tens of 1000’s of arbitrary arrests, greater than 34,000 instances 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.
Right now, we see a distinct form of spectacle: kids of the highly effective flaunting their extreme life-style on personal jets and in luxurious manufacturers, whereas unusual Filipinos wade by way of floods, rebuild houses 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 similar story with completely different actors: energy hoarded by just a few, public belief handled like foreign money, and establishments bent to serve acquainted household names as a substitute 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 daily by impunity? The echoes of Martial Regulation should 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 simply accept as regular.
That is why we should proceed to face alongside measures that may pierce by way 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 decreased to a household enterprise. These efforts should not small reforms; they’re survival instruments for a era whose future is on the road.
To recollect Martial Regulation isn’t just 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 we’ve got. If we scale back “By no means Once more” to a yearly slogan or a social media put up, 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 function will not be merely to commemorate however to behave. To teach our friends towards disinformation, to push for laws that dismantles dynasties, to harness expertise 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 way of service, public funds for the general public good, and justice alive in our time.
Silence permits impunity—so to honor the victims of Martial Regulation 53 years in the past and to guard the longer term, we should flip remembrance into resistance. As a result of “By no means Once more” will stay an empty phrase except we, the youth, be sure it lastly stops with us.
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