Cardinal Jose Advincula, archbishop of Manila, reminded Filipinos on Wednesday, September 21, not to forget the lessons of martial law as the country marked 50 years since its imposition.

“Huwag nawa nating kalimutan ang mga aral mula sa panahon ng Martial Law. Nakita na natin ang liwanag. Huwag na tayong bumalik sa dilim (May we not forget the lessons of martial law. We already saw the light. Let us not go back to the darkness),” said the cardinal in a message.

Amnesty International estimates thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands tortured and imprisoned after Ferdinand Marcos Sr. imposed martial law on September 21, 1972, unleashing security forces on rivals, critics and dissidents.

“Limampung taon na ang nakakaraan nang ideklara ang martial law sa ating bansa. Hindi maitatanggi na naging hudyat ito ng maunos na yugto sa ating kasaysayan bilang isang bayan (It has been 50 years since martial law was declared in our country. It cannot be denied that it signaled a stormy chapter in our history as a nation),” said Cardinal Advincula.

“Sa gitna ng dilim, may liwanag tayong natanaw. Sa harap ng mga hindi magagandang nangyari, may mga aral tayong natutunan (In the middle of darkness, we saw light. In the face of the bad things that happened, we learned lessons),” he added.

“Natutunan nating pahalagahan ang buhay ng tao, itaguyod ang dignidad ng bawat isa, at igalang ang karapatang-pantao (We learned to value human life, to promote the dignity of each one, and to respect human rights),” said the prelate.

“Natutunan natin na ang tunay na pag-unlad ay nakasalalay sa katarungan at kapayapaan. Natutunan nating ipaglaban ang katotohanan (We learned that genuine development is based on justice and peace. We learned to fight for the truth),” said Cardinal Advincula.

“Natutunan natin ang halaga ng demokrasya at ang kapangyarihan ng taumbayan (We learned the value of democracy and the power of the people),” he said.

“Ngunit ang mga mahahalagang aral na ito ay hindi natin matututunan kung pilit nating itatanggi o kakalimutan ang dilim ng kasasayan (But we will never learn these valuable lessons if we insist to refuse to acknowledge or forget the darkness of history),” said the cardinal.

‘Never forget’

Activists also vowed on Wednesday to “never forget” the human rights abuses under Marcos, whose son, Marcos Jr. is now the country’s president.

“The Marcoses need to at least acknowledge their role in those dark days,” said Carlos Conde, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, as activists and victims of rights abuses marked the 50th anniversary of the start of martial law with protests.

“Without truth-telling, without the space for Filipinos to understand and accept what happened during martial law, we can never find closure, we can never move forward.”

Half a century after the martial law began, 11,103 people have been officially recognized as victims of torture, killings, enforced disappearances and other abuses.

They have been compensated with some of the wealth, estimated to be in the billions of dollars, stolen by Marcos and his wife Imelda.

But human rights groups say there has never been a true reckoning of the abuses — or those responsible held to account.

Marcos was toppled from power by a bloodless “people power” revolt in 1986 and the family was chased into exile.

After the patriarch’s death in 1989, they returned to the Philippines and began a remarkable political comeback that culminated with Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s victory in the May 9 presidential election.

‘One of the darkest periods’

His landslide win was helped by a massive online misinformation campaign that portrayed the Marcos clan in a positive light and whitewashed abuses and corruption during the dictatorship.

Martial law victims and activists have described the Marcos regime as “one of the darkest periods” in the country’s history.

They accuse Marcos Jr. and his supporters of distorting the facts about martial law and falsely portraying it as a “golden age” for the Philippines.

“There are young Filipinos who are interested in learning what really happened in spite of many others who were really blinded,” said former political prisoner Bonnie Ilagan, who spent two years in jail where he was repeatedly tortured.

“The fight continues. We must never forget.”

Ilagan and others accused Marcos’s allies in Congress of slashing budgets and weakening the government agencies responsible for preserving the nation’s past.

Marcos Jr, who has repeatedly praised his father’s rule, last week defended martial law as “necessary” to protect the country against communist and Muslim insurgencies.

“We do recognize the problems that happened, the abuses that occurred like in any war,” Marcos Jr said.

But he said critics were “wrong” to call his father a “dictator”.

“There’s no reason to revise history,” he said, while suggesting school textbooks need to be rewritten “only if they’re wrong”.

Cristina Palabay of the Karapatan human rights alliance accused Marcos Jr and his administration of peddling “one lie after another”.

“There needs to be institutionalized acknowledgement and great reckoning on the crimes committed by Marcos and his ilk,” she said. – with a report by Agence from Presse