Because of the recent controversial dialogue between former senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, memories of martial law surfaced anew. Alleged atrocities committed by strongman Ferdinand Edralin Marcos were dredged up.
Enrile, former Senate president, presiding judge of the Senate impeachment court that removed Chief Justice Renato Corona, was also the former justice secretary and later defense secretary when Marcos declared martial law in September 1972. He is also known as the architect of Marcos’ martial law.
Enrile drew flak from those who claimed they were victims of warrantless arrests, detained and even tortured by their military captors. Some of the survivors and their relatives took Enrile to task for saying no one was arrested and killed during martial law. His contention was that those arrested were not for criticizing Marcos and martial law, but was a preemptive strike against those inciting the masses to rebellion and topple duly constituted authority. .
In the outrage over the Enrile statement, these critics forgot that it was JPE’s mutiny against Marcos that triggered the People Power Revolution at EDSA that catapulted Cory Aquino to the presidency. Yes, Cory Aquino who was not even at EDSA was proclaimed the heroine and consequently President of the Republic.
What about Enrile and former Philippine Constabulary chief Fidel Valdez Ramos, whom Enrile asked to join him at Camp Aguinaldo lest he is arrested by Marcos chief henchman, Gen. Fabian Ver? Enrile gave way to the people’s clamor for the widow of assassinated Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. to assume the presidency.
Not pleased with how President Cory was running the government, he and another opposition leader, Salvador Hidalgo Laurel, broke away from the former housewife who found running the government was not as easy as managing a household.
Having established that footnote in Philippine history, let us not also forget two grim episodes that happened during the reign of mother and son Aquino. These are the Mendiola and the Mamasapano massacres. People’s memories are short and sometimes selective depending on their political leanings.
Let us first recall the Mamasano massacre which is more recent. The bloody incident occurred on January 25, 2015 when a combined force of Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters waylaid members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force. The PNP/SAF commandos were retreating after an operation that took out terrorist bomb maker Marwan. Left in an open corn field in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, the police commandos were easy targets for the Muslim attackers.
Why were the PNP /SAF commandos left vulnerable? A survivor said their officers radioed for reinforcement and rescue from then President Noynoy Aquino and senior AFP officials who were with him in nearby Zamboanga. Noynoy flew to Zamboanga to wait for the head of Marwan did not give the order to send in more soldiers to reinforce the beleaguered Special Action Force. As a consequence of Noynoy’s criminal neglect, 44 SAF commandoes met their death at the hands of the Muslim band that butchered them even as their hands were raised in surrender. Mamasapano became known as Black Sunday.
This is the grievous sin of the son. Let us now go to the Mendiola massacre of January 22, 1987. This grim chapter in our nation’s history happened less than a year after the February 1986 People Power Revolution that swept Cory Aquino to power. It is not in our nature to speak ill of the dead but history has to be put in proper perspective. While no one can claim it was President Cory Aquino who ordered the Capital Regional Command security forces to fire and kill 12 protesting famers, the Capcom was directly under the Office of the President.
Let us recount the circumstances and events that led to the Mendiola massacre. The farmers had been camped eight days and seven nights at the then-Ministry of Agrarian Reform to protest the lack of genuine land reform. Realizing their grievances were not being addressed by the Cory government, the famers inflamed by the fiery rhetoric of militant leader Jaime Tadeo, called for a march to Malacanang.
At the Quezon Memorial Circle, the farmers were joined by the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), and the League of Filipino Students (LFS). This was the group violently dispersed by a fusillade from the Capcom state security forces who had launched Oplan “God Save the Queen.” The Queen of course meant Cory Aquino whose followers were fancying her for sainthood.
Compare the farmer casualties who were only at the Mendiola bridge to the leftist mob who were already storming the gates of Malacanang where Marcos told the Presidential Security Guards to hold their fire. Which brings us to the question of: Were more people killed during the six-year revolutionary reign of Queen Cory or during the nearly 23-year watch of strongman Ferdinand Marcos”‹
