#NeverForget NeverAgain NeveragaintoMartialLaw

[upismediacenter]

UPIS commemorates Martial Law

The University of the Philippines Integrated School (UPIS) joined to hold the UP Day of Remembrance in the UPIS 7-12 building last September 21, 2023.

Based on the online announcement OP 2023-01, the UPIS community was called to participate in the event in accordance with UP Memo No. PAJ 23-28. This event was intended to spread awareness of the horrors wreaked from Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s imposition of Martial Law decades earlier, as well as to share the UPIS voice and stand on the issue, stated by the UPIS Officer-in-charge Principal Diana Caluag.

The event started with the assembly of the grades 3-6 students at the 3-6 lobby and quadrangle and with grades 7-12 students at the 7-12 ramp area. A countdown was held before a minute of noise barrage, symbolizing the widespread protest and opposition during the Martial Law to honor the victims and survivors, this was then followed by a moment of silence.

CLIP: UPIS Day of Remembrance - Noise Barrage and Silence

The UPIS Social Studies Department and the Pamunuan ng Kamag-Aral (PKA) led the program and read the joint statement written with the UP College of Education. The UPIS Media Center also shared their statement and expressed their pledge to take part in rising up against historical denialism.

A controversial topic the speeches emphasized was the removal of the name “Marcos” on the subject “Diktaduryang Marcos,” in which has lead up to instilling ignorance in the country. To this, the UPIS Media Center stated that “It only proves how determined the Marcoses are to absolve themselves of their own crimes, to wash the blood off from their hands.”

In addition, the UP College of Education with UPIS posted on their Facebook page how it has a “political motive,” continuing, “If this is indeed the intention, then this directive deprives our students of the truth that will help them govern our society and nation properly in the generations to come.”

From the statements, students were reminded that this height in the country’s unjust state over the last 50 years should be revisited but disrecurred. As the chant the UPIS MC initiated, “Never again, never again, never again to Martial Law!” echoed through the high school building walls this day. // by Zaeda Wadi

#NeverAgain #NeverForget #NeverAgainToMartialLaw #DefendPressFreedom

Photo Credits: UPIS Media Center

[neverforget365]

January 1: Never Again

Let’s get something out of the way right now: this is not a pro-Marcos essay series.  If you came here expecting a nostalgia trip about the days of Apo Lakay, well, you’re in the wrong place.  Not that there aren’t good things to remember about the Philippines of the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s. But that isn’t the purpose of this series. It’s a collection of stories about why the phrase “never again” is especially associated with the Marcos administration.  Too many present-day Filipinos know the story of the 21 years of the Marcos administration only from the wide-angle lens of history, and there are far too few storytellers still around to depict the era on a more human scale - that of a particular place, of a particular event, or a particular person; that of an emotion, a conviction or a realization.

This, therefore, is an attempt to break the grand, monolithic narrative of the Marcos era into human-sized chunks, without losing sight of the whole.  

It is far from the only undertaking along those lines, of course. Many books along these lines have been published, and there are memorials aplenty that tell these stories.  The Bantayog ng Bayani in Quezon City, for example, memorializes the stories of 316 individuals (as of 2020) who fought the regime in one way or the other. But I submit that at the rate we Filipinos are forgetting the sins of this era, every storyteller’s voice is important. And since I’ve collected quite a few of these stories over the years, I feel it’s important to share them - both for the edification of the reader, and because as a writer it is what I am compelled to write about.

***

The proposed structure for this collection is simple: one story a day for a year, in bite-sized chunks; some commemorating events and people associated with a date, but most of them relatively random - from memories of Nutribun to Imelda’s destruction of Mount Sungay to the brutal murder of Archimedes Trajano. I propose to start most entries with a discussion of historical fact, and then move on to a reflection on the meanings and human impact of each memory.

And with all of that out of the way, the most obvious question remaining is why I am doing this, and why on earth you should listen to me.  Questions to which the answers may not be very satisfying.

I am not anybody special; while I have met and befriended many of the individuals who fought against Marcos, I was born in the late 1970s - too young then to have joined the fight myself. And if we’re being honest, I probably wouldn’t have been part of the fight even if I were a bit older; I come from a family which tried to keep its head down and mind its own business during those days.  Which is something I honestly feel a bit of shame about. But I do not want to turn this series into an exercise in navelgazing. So I shall stop there.

What I am, instead, is a scholar, a writer, and a student of history - one who lived through enough of the Marcos era to know that it changed the course of Phillippine life profoundly, and one who lived through enough of the Marcos era to know why Macoy and Meldy remain controversial to this day.

***

The phrase “Never Again, Never Forget” has become a big part of my life since 2015, when Bongbong Marcos ran for Vice President of the Philippines (and lost to Leni Robredo, let’s not forget); and since November 2016, when the Duterte administration facilitated the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig.

“Never Again, Never Forget” stopped being an agreeable political catchphrase, and became a matter of urgency.  First because it was obvious how much we Filipinos have forgotten, and second because we are well on our way to repeating the history of the Marcos era, willingly following self-declared authoritarians towards the false promise of so-called progress through highly centralized order.

Since then, I have been trying to gather details of what happened during that era, and why people allowed things to happen that way.  This series is one of the outlets I have chosen as an outlet for all that studying.

And if you’re still reading, then I suppose I should thank you for choosing to read my work as a lens for reviewing the history of that era. It is my hope that these stories will produce more than remembrance - that somehow they will make real in our world the imprimatur of those two injunctions: Never again. And never forget.

[maverick-guy]

Wore black earlier in remembrance of #MartialLaw and a blue denim as a sign of peace, justice & truth. #NeverAgain #NeverForget