For this section, we are exhibiting an enormous variety and range of documentary and audio-visual sources, which are artistic and interpretative. For literature, we are including novels and other artistic expressions such as poetry, plays and short stories, which interpret the Martial Law period and its significance. Films, documentaries and music are included here because of their quality of eliciting sensory perceptions from its targeted audience. While novels, recordings, photographs and documentaries could be considered as primary sources, we are including them in this section because of their artistic and creative qualities.
This short clip provides a timeline of the beginning and expansion of Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc., and the subsequent construction of Antonio O. Floirendo’s empire in Mindanao. Floirendo was among the wealthiest cronies of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.
TADECO KO BAI, “TADECO History,” Youtube video, 7:06, May 16, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2IFGzOyG-0
This 24-minute documentary features oral history accounts of the survivors of the Palimbang Massacre that happened in the town of Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat on September 24, 1974.
Commission on Human Rights, “Mga Kuwento sa Malisbong,” Youtube video, 24:45, May 6, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FwiPx4VxW4
This is a short clip of the 2016 annual re-enactment of the Escalante Massacre that happened on September 20, 1985 in Escalante, Negros Occidental. This commemoration is done by Escalante’s theater and grassroots organizations.
Cultural Center of the Philippines, “31st Anniversary Re-Enactment of Escalante Massacre,” YouTube video, 6:01, October 17, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jRRg3SPIw4
This short documentary is an exposé of the displacement of the Remontados, an indigenous group in the Sierra Madre mountain range, amidst their impending displacement from their ancestral land as a result of the aggressive development projects of the Marcos government, specifically the dam construction in their area.
Cinema Real, “Sabangan (Dam),” Cinemata video, 26:36, May 1, 2022.
This short documentary looks at the impoverished and violent condition of the displaced urban poor in Butuan at the tail end of the Marcos regime. The film shows that as urban poor leaders and trade unionists are slain, “salvaged”, imprisoned, and disappeared, local communities continued to organize and resist notwithstanding the risk of arrest.
Asia Visions Productions, “No Time for Crying,” Cinemata video 29:45, May 5, 2022.
This 21 minute film features the Museums of both the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines and the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani Foundation, while connecting the relevance of Universal Human Rights to the subject of authoritarian repression under the Martial Law Administration. Thru this backdrop, the documentary also connects issues of the past with present circumstances – laying-out critiques towards the Duterte Administration’s War on Drugs and the use of the Anti-Terror Bill, and pointing-out problems of agrarian impoverishment and labor marginalization. Speaking in the documentary are representatives of the TFDP and Bantayog organizations, as well as survivors and victims of the Marcos and Duterte administrations.
Maniquis, Malu (2023). “Karapatang Pantao, Paano na?” Task Force Detainees of the Philippines. 2023.
Originally a set of 12 videos published with different artistic styles under the Commission on Human Rights, the “HABILIN” short video series focuses on the stories of 9 persons who lived under the martial law regime: Margarita Gomez, Sr. Mariani Dimaranan, Coronacion Chiva, Lazaro Silva, Marciano Anastacio Jr., Elma Tangente, Lumbaya Gayudan, Nestor Principe, at Armando Palabay. Each account narrates how they acted in their own ways to resist the regime and fight for freedom, democracy and justice. These acts culminate in the People Power Revolution – one which is reflected upon over a call to pass-on the legacies of these stories to the next generation of Filipinos.
Compilation: “Habilin (English Subs).” (Youtube Video). Published by WiseOwl PH. 77 Feb 2022.
On 7 July 1974, the Marcos administration staged a massive parade called “Kasaysayan ng Lahi (History of the Race).” Through floats, dances, and reenactment, the spectacle portrayed a particular framing of Philippine history, starting with the “stone-age” Tasaday and reaching its apex in the declaration of Martial Law and the subsequent establishment of the New Society. The parade inaugurated the Folk Arts Theater, which was constructed in a record 77 days to serve as venue to the 1974 Miss Universe pageant. “Kasaysayan ng Lahi” involved around 22,000 participants, including 50 tribal groups. In attendance were Miss Universe candidates, as well as “international guests from neighboring countries, and from Mexico, Spain, the USSR, the USA, Israel, Italy and England.”
The parade was directed by Lamberto Avellana, with musical direction by Lucrecia Kasilag and Andrea Veneracion, and choreography by Lucrecia Urtula. Key segments were led by Presidential Assistant on National Minorities Manuel Elizalde Jr. (ethnic), Assistant Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora (Oriental), Maj. Gen. Fidel Ramos (American), Maj. Gen. Fabian Ver (Japanese), and Assistant Executive Secretary Guillermo de Vega (Old and New Society). “Kasaysayan ng Lahi” was also made into a documentary film which was narrated by Avellana himself, as well as a book released by the National Media Production Center.
Note: The opening sequence of this digitized version was patched with newer landscape footage, perhaps due to degradation of the source copy. To see the original footage, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo3wkRu3POw.
National Media Production Center, “Kasaysayan ng Lahi with Lamberto Avellana,” uploaded by Rewinder Channel, YouTube video, 48:31, August 21, 2021
The documentary was produced as part of a Martial Law Oral History Project of the Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board (HRVCB) in cooperation with the Swiss Embassy. It features various accounts of survivors and victims’ relatives who faced cases of human rights violations, including torture, arbitrary arrests and the killing or enforced disappearances of loved ones under the dictatorship. The video copy available online was republished by the late Mila D. Aguilar.
Commission on Human Rights (2015). “Our Voices, Our Stories, Our Redemption.” Youtube video, 37:26, 14 June 2015.
On May 2016, the group “Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law” (CARMMA) published a short video on social media days before voting commenced. Various students and young voters are shown meeting face-to-face with victims of detention and torture under the government of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the father of then Vice Presidential Candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Noting that the full education of the regime has been lacking in schools, the video ends with a call for a petition to the Department of Education to bolster textbook content on the period.
Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA). 2016. “These young voters are in for a surprise.” Facebook, May 3, 2016.
“Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law” (CARMMA) published a 3 and a half minute video for facebook which begins by showing the television broadcast for Proclamation 1081 taking place at 7pm, September 23. It proceeds to show brief excerpts of various survivors of the regime detailing their experiences during the period. The survivors give parting advice to the audience – and the video ends with a petition call towards the Department of Education to integrate the teaching of the Martial Law Period more concisely in textbooks.
Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA). 2016. “Martial Law: declared on Sept. 23, 1972 – not Sept. 21.” Facebook, September 23, 2016.
The 38-minute “film essay” by AsiaVisions (formerly Creative Audio-Visual Specialists or CAVS) spotlights the continuation of human rights abuses even after the Marcos administration had supposedly lifted Martial Law in 1981, taking the stories of clerical actors, activists, social workers, and truth-tellers to form a picture of Marcos’ cruel grip on power. Extensive militarization was Marcos’ weapon of choice, along with the imperialistic force of the United States, as seen in the presence of American bases.
“I would have no hesitation in saying that the situation has gone from bad to worse,” says Sr. Mariani Dimaranan, chair of Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, in the film. “During Martial Law years, we were focusing our attention only on three phenomena, namely: arrest and detention, salvaging, and disappearances. After the so-called lifting of Martial Law, all these phenomena stayed on or kept going, plus the fact that we had still to attend to massacres, salvaging, hamletting, and other things going on in the provinces, specifically.”
Aside from interviews, the film features archival and news footage alongside mass demonstrations of the time, including the funeral cortege of slain senator Ninoy Aquino. It documents the mounting resistance and foreshadows the ouster of Marcos via EDSA three years later. A speech by former senator Lorenzo Tañada closes the film: “Babawiin na ang mga karapatang kinuha, ang dangal na dinusta ng mga palalo at berdugo ng lahi (we will retrieve our rights that were taken away, our honor that was trampled upon by the wicked butchers of our people).”
AsiaVisions, “The Arrogance of Power,” Cinemata video, 38:27, May 7, 2022
