I was lucky that I studied in UP because I was able to learn about the heroics of Evelio Javier, Edgar Jopson, Lean Alejandro and countless other young men and women who laid down their lives against the Marcos dictatorship. Unfortunately, with the continued ascendancy of the Marcoses and some of their cronies, it's like nothing has happened and those who suffered under their hands have been given little or no financial remuneration, and worse, no apologies at all.
If you read this Inquirer article, you'll find out that there were many ordinary people who fought during those dark years. It would be interesting to buy the book that these siblings wrote. That way, we may never forget the price they had to pay so that we would enjoy the freedom we are experiencing right now.
A heroic generation still cries: ‘Never again’
I'm just happy that our youth has mobilized against some of the provisions of the Cybercrime Law. I was only a kid during the Martial Law days and I was lucky to have lived in Cebu, which was rabidly anti-Marcos. Anywhere else in the country, anyone who spoke against the Marcoses were shot or killed mercilessly, a priest and a doctor in my neighborhood were shot pointblank because of their anti-Marcos beliefs. I was in Grade 4 then. At least dito sa law na ito 12 years kulong lang....but that could just be for starters....it could get worse....at least, now the Filipino youth gets to feel like how it was during Martial Law and how really really BAD the MARCOSES were......
I was just 15 years old when the EDSA revolution happened, and growing up in Cebu, which was rabidly anti-Marcos at that time, I watched as fellow Cebuanos rejoiced when the Marcos couple were airlifted out of the Manila.
When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, I was just seven months old and it was only when I was in college in UP when I fully learned about what they had done and the activists their military had killed, since we had to study the lives of Lean Alejandro and other very intelligent activists who gave up their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today. When I was reading about the lives of these activists, I was really saddened by their youthful yet brutal deaths but at the same time, awed by their bravery during a very dark period in our history, something which I don't think I'd ever do if I were in their shoes. I think I would've just looked away rather than lose my life but I can never say how I'd react if I witness first hand the injustices that were happening at that time. Nowadays, kasi, we can always opt to work abroad or immigrate even, if we feel this country can offer us nothing anymore.
In 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell, along with the other Communist-bloc countries in Europe, the Ceaucescu's of Romania, a notorious dictatorial couple like the Marcoses were executed by their countrymen, plain and simple. Frankly, when that happened, I thought, why didn't they simply just do that to the Marcoses? Para matapos na lahat - no more trials, paid na ang debts nila to the thousands of martial law victims - and the country can move on. Tuloy, more than a quarter century after the EDSA Revolution, it's like nothing has happened, and 40 years after martial law, their injustices have gone unpunished - and the worst part is - they're back in power! Talk about spitting on the graves of the desaparecidos.
Anyway, this is just idle contemplation and we can't turn back time. We can only move forward and try to appreciate the legacies of those men and women who suffered during the Marcos dictatorship.
