![]() ![]() Marcos banned strikes and arrested, without charge, anyone suspected of being a dissident. The brutal weight of military rule was brought to bear upon the working masses of the Philippines. There was no section of the elite opposition that defended democracy. But he assured them that if he succeeded he intended to impose martial law and stage public executions by firing squad. Aquino met with several CIA operatives of the US embassy in the weeks leading up to Marcos’ declaration, and told them that he was thinking of attempting to seize power, with the assistance of the Stalinist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The elite opposition to Marcos had centered around Ninoy Aquino, who had sought to use the mass unrest of the time to remove Marcos from office and install himself in power. Only two members of the elite opposition remained in prison: Jose Diokno and Ninoy Aquino. ![]() His bourgeois opponents were released within weeks and either went into exile abroad, or embraced the dictatorship. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus and used the powers of martial law to carry out mass arrests. Marcos shut down all of the press, television and radio networks. Because of a superstitious predilection for multiples of the number seven, he backdated the declaration to September 21, thus rendering the official date for the declaration of martial law a historical falsehood. Seizing on this final pretext, Marcos signed Proclamation 1081 and imposed martial law on the morning of September 23. We know that the attack was staged because Enrile himself confessed to it in an interview with the New York Times in 1986. On September 22, Marcos’ Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile staged an attack on his own motorcade. This council became known as the Rolex Twelve, because Marcos gave each of them a Rolex watch after he had established his dictatorship. Marcos began convening regular meetings of a cabal of ten military leaders and two civilians to arrange the details of martial law. At the beginning of 1972, he met with Indonesian dictator Suharto, who had risen to power in the genocidal crushing of the mass Indonesian Communist Party in 1965-66, to discuss the tactics of establishing military rule. Marcos had the military stage bombings throughout Manila in 1971-72, to provide a pretext for his declaration. There was unanimity in the entire ruling class that dictatorship was necessary to prevent the emergence of a revolutionary struggle for power by the Filipino working class and oppressed masses. The elite opponents of Marcos fought to secure the reins of the coming dictatorship for themselves they did not fight to defend democracy. Marcos’ proclamation was part of a rising tide of global authoritarianism. The response of the ruling elite was to turn to dictatorial forms of rule. The demonstrations and strikes in the Philippines paralleled similar events throughout the world. What distinguished Marcos’ imposition of military rule from the attempts of his predecessors was the global crisis of capitalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, that produced conditions of mass upheaval and revolutionary situations internationally. A number of prior presidents had threatened to impose military rule-ending elections, closing the legislature, and suspending the writ of habeas corpus. The framework for military dictatorship in the Philippines had been erected by the United States, which enshrined the presidential power of martial law in the Constitution of its former colony, prior to granting independence. ![]() ![]() The ruling elite discussed it in the legislature, and major daily papers published statements advocating or denouncing it. Protests denouncing the threat of martial law had repeatedly shaken Manila over the previous two years. Although the date of its imposition was unexpected, everyone in Philippine politics had been openly discussing its likelihood since the beginning of 1970. He used his military dictatorship to remain in power until 1986, when a mass movement ousted him and a section of the military and Washington withdrew their support for his rule. Using its dictatorial powers, Marcos oversaw a brutal crackdown on the working masses of the Philippines. On September 23, 1972, forty-eight years ago today, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1081, imposing martial law on the country. ![]()
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