Survivors of detention during Ferdinand Marcos's martial law period used this year's anniversary of its 1972 declaration to call on younger Filipinos to keep the era's history alive, according to mindanews.com. Their message, as the outlet reported it, was a call to remember and to ensure it does not happen again.
The anniversary falls on September 21, the date Marcos placed the Philippines under military rule in 1972. Commemorations in recent years have drawn both aging survivors and students born long after the regime ended.
The appeal came alongside other observances reported by Philippine outlets. The Philippine News Agency reported that the national police described the day's protests as generally peaceful and credited a policy of maximum tolerance. Philstar.com reported that demonstrators at a martial law rally renewed calls against corruption. Inquirer.net reported that groups pushed back against efforts to revise how martial law history is taught or remembered, while SunStar published a column on martial law, the Filipino youth and the country's future.
Taken together, the coverage points to a continuing argument in the Philippines over how the Marcos years are recalled, and over what younger generations are taught about them. Survivors' groups have long warned that allowing the record to blur makes repetition more likely, a position echoed in the anniversary statements reported by mindanews.com.
Watch for whether the pushback against revising martial law history gains traction in schools and public commemorations, and whether officials respond to the groups' calls.
