Listen to Issa’s Kwentong Tibak.
On 21 September 1972, a total news blackout engulfed the country. Two days later on 23 September, President Marcos Sr. officially announced that he had placed the country under Martial Law.
Technically, Martial Law should have been lifted in January 1981, however, functionally Marcos Sr. would retain his authoritarian powers until his finally ousting in February 1986. And while the declaration of Martial Law might mark the formal start of Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship – the truth is that State forces had been repressing dissent and free speech from as early as his first reelection in 1969.
The administration of Marcos Sr is to this day one of the darkest times of Philippines’ modern history – with thousands arrested, disappeared, tortured and murdered
Generational Trauma
We have often heard the stories of the survivors of that era – their lives a human testament to the horrors inflicted on Filipinos by their government. However somehow as the years have passed – their stories seem to have become lost, dismissed to the realm of opinions rather than fact. We seem to have forgotten that these stories happened to real people, real parents and children, siblings and friends.
And with the rise to power of the second generation of Marcoses – and the call to “move on” – we seem to have forgotten that there is also a second generation of survivors as well. The children of Martial Law victim-survivors have stories to tell as well – stories of absent parents, of childhoods lived in fear or spent in military camps with the children of other detainees.
Their rights were violated as well – the right to live peacefully with their parents, the right to a family life free from the threat of violence by State forces. Their lives were irrevocably impacted by those years spent under authoritarian rule as well and their stories deserve to be told as well and the question needs to be asked: has the succeeding years seen the changes to Filipino society that they and their own children deserve?
Issa Manalo Lopez
Issa unselfishly shared her story growing up as a child of Martial Law heroes. She recounts how her experiences strengthened her as an artist. Issa is thriving and continues to share her journey to healing through her art.
Issa is a Theatre-maker, Director and Educator. She collaborates in creating socially-engaged work and advocates to uplift Women’s personal narratives and its contribution to social history. She has an MA in Theatre Arts and teaches under the Department of Speech Comm and Theatre Arts in UP Diliman. She is also the Artistic Director of Dulaang UP.
Ito ang kanyang #KwentongTibak.
Watch her full story on Ignite Conversations: Martial Law Bloodlines Episode.