“He who does not heed the lessons of history is condemned to repeat them." - George Santayana
The year 1972 was the longest year ever in history. The British army
kills 14 unarmed civil rights marchers; The Godfather was released in
the cinemas;The video game age had dawned; George Carlin was arrested
after his recital of "Seven words you can never say on television".
And on September 21, 1972 democracy had died in the Philippines. The 10th
president of the republic of the Philippines, Mr. Ferdinand Emmanuel
Edralin Marcos appeared on television to announce that he had proclaimed
martial law under Proclamation No. 1081.
The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus gave President Marcos undue
power to arrest and detain suspected rebels and political opposition.
Numerous human rights violations were committed during that period. The
hardest hit were the critics of his dictatorial government such as writers, commentators, organizers, professors, students and
artists. They were arrested and detained while in detention, they
experienced various forms of tortures, harassment, intimidation,
inhumane treatment and summary execution.
It is exactly 40 years since then-President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation 1081 a lot of things had changed since then both local and international but the legacy of Marcos still remains and it is sad to say at this day and age of unlimited freedom of expression and communication provided by Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking sites it is now under serious threat - a law had been signed that makes restrictions on freedom of expression over the Internet.
The legacy is in fact still very much alive under the present administration. Nothing had changed despite the NEVER AGAIN battle cry. Unless we learn to remember and we remember to learn, things will definitely change.
