Never Again. Never Forget. Never Again to Martial Law!
Migrante Canada Statement on the 52nd Anniversary Since the Declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines
We honour and remember today the many people who were killed, disappeared, arrested, tortured and imprisoned by the fascist dictatorship of Marcos Sr. when he placed the whole country under martial law on September 21, 1972, until the people power uprising kicked him and his family out of the Malacanang Palace and out of the country on February 1986. We remember those who served the people in many different ways and never tired of doing so until their last breath. We remember the continuing service of many patriotic men and women who fight against injustice and tyranny.
The names on this long list are many, from workers and peasants, youth and students, women, indigenous people, artists, poets and writers, and fighters.
Neri Colmenares, former Congressman, activist, former political detainee, and human rights lawyer. Satur Ocampo, former Congressman, former detainee, activist and journalist, Lino Brocka, film director, former detainee, and activist. Edgar Jopson, activist and fighter killed by Philippine military. Lorena Barros, a poet, activist, and fighter killed by Philippine military. Macli-ing Dulag, land defender and pangat of the Butbut tribe in the Cordillera killed by Philippine military. The 20 civilians, mostly sugar plantation workers in Escalante, Negros gunned down by the Philippine military for demanding agrarian reform. They are a handful of the hundreds of thousands made victims of martial law.
We mark the 52nd anniversary of the declaration of martial law to honour our beloved martyrs who fought against the dictatorship and sacrificed their lives for the people and for democracy. We remember the courage and strength of our patriotic men and women who are still with us today, and who continue the struggle for genuine democracy, freedom and peace based on justice.
Marcos Sr. declared martial law and imposed a fascist dictatorship. He wanted to hold power indefinitely and martial law did away with the presidential and constitutional term limits. He had the backing and support of the US government and the US military.
From Marcos Sr. to Marcos, Jr. regime, genuine land reform, national industrialization, betterment of the people’s lives, and national sovereignty are still the cries and calls of the Filipino people. Nothing has changed for the better in the lives of the Filipino people from Marcos Sr. To Marcos Jr.
Marcos Jr. continues to intensify the brutal campaigns of repression in reaction to people’s dissent, protest and resistance. Marcos Jr. continues to empower and pour funds into the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the Anti-Terorrism Council where currently the Anti-Terror Law still exists. The 2024 International People’s Tribunal on the Philippines exposed the rise in political killings, extrajudicial arrests and detentions, enforced disappearances, harassment, bombings of peasant and Indigenous communities, vilification and red-tagging cases perpetrated by the Marcos Jr. regime aided and supported by the US government. The Tribunal delivered a scathing verdict that the Marcos Jr., the Duterte regime, and the US government are all guilty of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law.
According to the Philippine human rights group KARAPATAN, cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings continue to increase from 41 EJK in 2022 to 60 EJK in 2023 and still counting.
The proposed 2025 national budget of the Marcos Jr. regime of Php 6.352 trillion only ensures prosperity for the rich and the elite, bigger budget for the military, for debt servicing, and allotments to confidential and intelligence funds.
Upon assuming power in 2022, Marcos Jr secured US support by allowing the expansion of US military presence with additional military bases, thereby fortifying the Philippines as a stronghold in its strategic plan to “contain” China’s economic and military influence. Corruption under the Marcos regime continues to worsen with Marcos Jr controlling “confidential and intelligence funds” worth several billions of pesos and other “unprogrammed funds” which are not publicly audited. Last year, Marcos Jr spent at least 1 billion pesos for overseas jet-setting trips on the pretext of “inviting foreign investors.” Amid widespread poverty and hunger, Marcos and his family live lavish lifestyles and spend hundreds of millions of pesos in private parties and concerts. He has his hands on the ₱550-billion Maharlika Investment Fund which he uses to collaborate with his business friends in exchange for political favors. Government contracts go to Marcos cronies such as Ramon Ang, Enrique Razon, the Aboitizes, the Villars and others, who rake in billions of pesos from so-called public-private partnerships.
What about the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)?
This year marks the 50th year since the implementation of the neoliberal labour export program (LEP) which started under the Marcos Sr. regime. According to Migrante International, in 2023, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) reported that 6,000 Filipinos leave the country each day to work overseas. This demonstrates the worsening economic crises in the Philippines that are forcing millions of Filipinos to leave their families and communities. Most of the deployed OFWs last year were rehired migrant workers or balik-manggagawa, exposing the fact that under the Duterte and Marcos Jr.regimes, Filipinos saw no meaningful solutions to the Philippines’ chronic unemployment crisis. According to the Central Bank of the Philippines, OFW remittances in 2023 amounting to Php 239 billion has contributed to the 2025 proposed national budget, and yet the government will reduce the budget for the creation of more temporary shelters for distressed kababayan abroad, plus reduced comprehensive pro-bono legal assistance, but with more additional labor and welfare staff to be posted at the Migrant Workers Offices around the world.
The Marcos Jr. plan is to slash over a quarter of the DMW budget with an overall 28.7% decrease from Php 6.3 billion in 2024 to Php 4.5 billion in 2025. Our sister Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina migrant worker who has been a victim of human trafficking remains on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade. Compare this with Alice Guo, alleged Chinese spy and in the Philippine Overseas Gaming Operations (POGO), has a warrant of arrest, but escapes to Indonesia, arrested by Indonesian authorities and returned to the Philippines.
The Filipino people are deeply outraged at the US-Marcos Jr. government. They are sick of Marcos Jr.’s outright puppetry to US monopoly capital, the gross neglect, corruption, and exploitation amid chronic economic crisis and dirty wars against the people. The people’s movement for genuine national freedom and genuine democracy in the Philippines continues to advance and the overseas Filipinos are a part of this struggle. The overseas Filipinos, including residents and immigrants, international students, migrant workers, undocumented Filipinos, refugees, unite to spearhead campaigns and expose the criminal neglect of the US-Marcos Jr.
Migrante Canada will continue to arouse, organize, and mobilize our Kababayan here in the Turtle Island, the so-called "Canada," and unite the Filipino migrants in asserting our rights to assistance from the Philippine government, living wages and better working conditions from the Canadian government, and advance the struggle for national democracy in the Philippines so that not one more Filipino will be forced to leave the homeland just to survive. We will continue to reject and resist the US-Marcos-Duterte fascist and anti-people regimes!
Trabaho sa Pinas, Hindi sa Labas!!!
Tunay na Reporma sa Lupa at Pambansang Industriyalisasyon, Ipatupad!!!
Bring Mary Jane Veloso home!!!
Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!!!###