I am a Martial Law victim. I lost my job as a senior business reporter of the Manila Times when Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law. I was on my first trip to Europe as a guest of Philippine Airlines when what was called state of emergency then by the western press was declared. When I came back a few days after the Sept. 22, 1972 announcement of Martial Law, I had an easy time clearing through immigration and customs. Wow, normal.
But when I went to my office at the old MT office at Florentino Torres Street, I was stopped by a burly army sergeant. I told him I am “press.” “Walang press, press dito,” he shouted back. He tore my press ID. Furious, I hollered back, “I will remember your face. I will see you when Martial Law is over!”
I thought Martial Law was good for only a few days. Or a few months at the most.
Alas, martial regime lasted for 14 straight years (with Marcos exercising unbridled executive and legislative powers). It was ended only by an American-inspired, Church-backed civil-military coup called People Power on Feb. 25, 1986.
These days, Martial Law would probably last, at the most, 45 days. But if I were Digong Duterte declaring Martial Law, I would go for broke and proceed to declare not just Martial Law, but also abolish Congress and perhaps, even overthrow the Supreme Court.
Then Duterte could conduct his drugs war with absolute impunity ala Assad, cut down the oligarchs to size, remove nearly all corrupt people in government, and finally, achieve what all presidents before him failed to do—inclusive growth, meaning at least 26 million Filipinos earning suddenly, P50,000 or more a month, tax-free.
Only in a prosperous society could a government guarantee what the American Declaration of Independence aimed for—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But I am digressing. As president, BS Aquino created a commission to entice all Martial Law victims to file a complaint and collect a measly monetary reward. I didn’t file, although some of my newspaper colleagues did. Why didn’t I file? Because I was a happy Martial Law victim.
Why am I a happy Martial Law victim? Because I lost my Manila Times job. Losing it forced me to look beyond Manila. Within days of Martial Law, I got a sinecure as a correspondent of a large Japanese daily newspaper. I also got stringer jobs as Manila correspondent for two large German TV stations. Three years later, I became senior correspondent of Asiaweek, which later became a Time Warner subsidiary. As a multinational weekly, Asiaweek paid me well.
Marcos was perhaps the most charismatic of all Philippine presidents when democrats were still fashionable in elections and statecraft. He embodied the best in the modern Philippine leader and was the nearest epitome of a great president.
He was a scholar with a keen sense of history, a genuine war hero with more medals than Audie Murphy, a bar topnotcher even while reviewing in jail, a great orator with a booming baritone, endowed with a political ideology and an eidetic memory (he once delivered a prepared speech to a joint session of the US Congress direct from memory). He had zeal and fervor to make his country great.
He entered politics in 1949 and campaigned for congressman, promising his northern Luzon common folk: “Elect me your congressman now and I’ll give you an Ilocano president in 20 years.” He won as congressman and went on to serve for three terms. He was elected senator in 1959, was reelected in 1963 and became Senate president.
He was elected president in November 1965 and won reelection in 1969, the first president to do so. In 1972, he declared Martial Law, ensuring his rule for 20 years, the longest by any Philippine president.
His 20-year rule is notable for many things, aside from the usual gripes about corruption and dictatorship.
On the economic front, Marcos was the first to achieve rice self-sufficiency, the first to score a 9.8-percent economic growth, the first to manage the country’s energy problem properly, the first to design a major industrialization program, and the first with a genuine land reform with an all-encompassing target of land transfers. Average GDP growth during his 20-year regime was 3.8 percent; inflation, 10.3 percent.
According to then-Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, a close ally of 21 years before he rebelled against him in 1986, “Minus the alleged corruption, Marcos was the most productive president we ever had.” JPE enumerated what FM has done:
Marcos initiated the expansion of irrigation systems all over the country, the expansion of the infrastructure of the country like the Philippine Friendship Highway from Aparri to Zamboanga, the development of our port systems, the expansion of our air capability, the modernization of the military organization, and land reform.
Many of the plans being followed for the present infrastructure of the country were products of the Marcos period.
“In the field of international relations, Marcos initiated the one-China policy to the chagrin of Taiwan, opened relations with Moscow, shortened the lease on the American bases from 99 to 25 years, reduced the hectarage of the bases, and required the Americans to pay rent. He was able to preserve the national integrity in spite of the Moro National Liberation Front. He initiated the first tax amnesty, which was the most successful tax amnesty, and initiated the coco levy system to replace the aging coconut tree population. Today, the coco levy is now worth P100 billion. He brought the country closer to many countries because of his adoption of satellite. We solved the rice crisis, the cooking oil shortage, the gasoline crisis. Without the stain of corruption, Marcos was a great president,” Enrile told me.
Enrile was widely perceived as the jailer of President Aquino’s father, the popular opposition leader Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. (who was in jail for seven years and seven months), and at one point was accused of plotting to remove his mother, Corazon Aquino.
No wonder, BS Aquino jailed JPE when the former became president.