Anniversary of the Declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines

Today, the Philippines remembers the declaration of Martial Law in 1971 by former President Ferdinand Marcos. As is expected, there are postage stamps issued by the Philippines during the Martial Law years glorifying the declaration of Martial Law, and the person of the president and his first lady. 

Even his birthday was commemorated on stamps, something that is usually done for royalty or deceased people.

I was born after the Revolution that toppled the Marcos regime took place so I am not in a position to say whether the Philippines was better off with Martial Law or without. I can only rely on literature that is available.

Marcos loyalists argue that the discipline brought about by the Martial Law brought an era of prosperity; on the other hand, those who are against Martial Law argue that the prosperity was only geared towards those who are favored by the Marcoses [think cronies]. Neither side is wrong; both discipline and proper accountability is necessary for a government to work properly.

The citizens should know and follow the laws of the land; likewise, the officials who are tasked to implement the law should have the discipline to implement it consistently and indiscriminately—no exemptions should be made [even on relatives;]; no person of group should be favored or disadvantaged [such as what happened to political opponents].

In the same way, citizens and government officials should be made accountable for disregarding the law—penalties should be imposed consistently regardless of who is to be penalized. Public spending should come from proper sources [not stolen from the coffers of political opponents or from illegal activities] and should be funneled to the appropriate expenses [not to false NGOs] at the correct amounts [market prices or lower].

There are many more nitty-gritty’s concerning Martial Law and the two arguments—discipline and accountability—are just generalizations. Nevertheless, these two would definitely improve the Philippines, if effected.

Perhaps, the question that the Filipinos should debate about is not whether one leader is better than the other. We should look at how the current system is working and improve on it—look at the root causes of the problems and cut them; search for potentials for abuses and eliminate them; identify the opportunities for corruption and eradicate them.