This report looks into the impact of the military build-up on the Island of Samar. In particular, this report contains exploratory findings of a 5-man committee regarding various cases of abuse committed by several military units in Eastern Samar and Northern Samar. Significantly, the report also included an assessment of the impact of the counterinsurgency campaign in Samar that caused a humanitarian crisis on the island.
International Commission on the Militarization of Samar. Militarization of Samar. Hong Kong: Resource Center for Philippine Concerns, 1979.
This document is a summary of the observations made by the Makabayang Makabayang Kilusan Para Isulong ang Katarungan (MAKIISA KA) during their fact-finding mission regarding the multiple reports of human rights violations on the island of Samar. The report of MAKIISA KA underscored the brutality of the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign. Most of the data gathered by the report came from actual victims of military abuse and the survivors of massacres.
Makabayang Kilusan Para Isulong ang Katarungan. Samar: The Continuing Agony of the Land: A Report on the Fact-Finding Mission to Samar, November 3 – 15, 1981.Manila, 1981.
A major fact-finding mission was conducted in Leyte under the sponsorship of the Human Rights Investigation Commission, co-chaired by Senator Lorenzo Tanada and Ambrosio Padilla. Representatives from various Human Rights Groups including Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace, Concerned Citizens for Justice and Peace, and other youth, student and catholic groups participated with the support of international solidarity groups and journalists. A total of 105 persons were interviewed covering 16 barangays between 1982 and 1985, reporting on 160 cases of incidents ranging from arbitrary arrest, torture, looting, and massacres. The report also indicts Military Infantry and Constabulary elements along with members of the Integrated Civilian Home Defense Forces (ICHDF) as perpetrators. A copy of this report was archived by the Medical Action Group, and later Digitized with the help of the Rizal Library.
Human Rights Investigation Commission. “Leyte: Fear and Pain.” Fact-Finding Mission Report, November 13-16, 1985.
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 article by U.S. Foreign Relations expert, Gary Hawkes, interrogates the so-called American dilemma. How and why to support Marcos in the midst of mounting economic and political pressures? Gawes looks at important issues such as military aid and bases, the economy and opposition to Marcos.
Hawes, Gary. “United States Support for the Marcos Administration and the Pressures That Made for Change.” Contemporary Southeast Asia 8, no. 1 (1986): 18–36.
This book provides a collection of sources pertaining to the mass murder of Filipino Muslims within the coastal village of Malisbong in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao. On September 1974, during the Islamic Period of Fasting, Philippine Military and Paramilitary forces (including the infamous Christian ilagâ group) attacked a series of coastal villages in Palimbang, detaining a large section of the local male population in the Malisbong Mosque and systematically executing captives over several days. The incident was reported to have caused the deaths of over 1,500 men, with countless women raped on naval barges and elsewhere, and homes looted before being razed to the ground. Featuring declassified government communications, journalistic accounts and survivor testimonies, this reader will be invaluable to those interested in studying the comparative impact of Martial Law on Muslim Mindanao.
Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission and Commission on Human Rights. The Tacbil Mosque Palimbang Massacre: A Reader (2nd ed). Manila, 2022.
This article by political scientist David Wurfel focuses on questions of legitimacy and acquiescence that led to the rise and fall of Marcos and his regime. It looks at the different dealings of Marcos with various sectors including the elite, the Catholic Church, the military, the peasantry, urban poor, among others. It also examines the role of the US in legitimizing martial law.
Wurfel, David. “Martial Law in the Philippines: The Methods of Regime Survival.” Pacific Affairs 50, no. 1 (1977): 5–30.
The report focuses on the Municipality of Basey in Samar Island, documenting the atrocities of the 20th Infantry Battalion. It features various case documentations of human rights abuses being carried out by military men, and the accounting of individual witnesses and testimonies thereto. The document concludes with an analysis of the negative effects of Samar Island’s Militarization and a correlation between the intensified violence and growing capitalist interests in the exploitation of the land’s resources.
Visayas Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace. ” When Fear Generates Courage.” Report of the International Fact-Finding Mission to Basey, Western Samar. September 12-14, 1984.
A three-member delegation representing five U.S. medical and scientific associations visited the Philippines near the end of 1983 to observe health and human rights conditions in the country. Over their stay, after conferring with various political detainees, journalists, human rights activists, members of the clergy, and health workers, they published a report indicating that a continuing pattern of gross human rights violations was still in place despite the supposed lifting of Martial Law in 1981. Specific cases are also highlighted in their report, including the murders of Bobby de la Paz and Dr. Juan Escandor. A copy of this report was archived by the Medical Action Group, and later Digitized with the help of the Rizal Library.
American Association for the Advancement of Science, et. al. “Report of a Fact-Finding Mission to the Philippines.” 28 November – 17 December, 1983.
Military Operations in the Mountainous Northern areas of Kalinga-Apayao and Cagayan intensified since 1982, with the Marag valley inhabited by the Isneg tribe declared a “No-man’s land” operation zone on March 1985. Several Human Rights Groups from Manila, Cagayan and Baguio would conduct a fact-finding mission to verify the aerial attacks and alleged military atrocities being reported by the Isneg People. Their report includes a situationer of the region and its people, a recording of bombing and strafing incidents across 8 months, and a list of “salvaging” incidents that took place over the same period. A copy of this report was archived by the Medical Action Group, and later Digitized with the help of the Rizal Library.
Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), “Fact-Finding Mission Report: Cagayan Valley and Kalinga-Apayao.” November 4-9, 1985.
