Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
March 7, 2022
50 years apart: Philippine activist fights dictator then son
DECADES-LONG ACTIVIST. Former human-rights chair and
martial law victim Loretta Rosales shows a mugshot of her when she
was arrested in 1976 during the martial law period as she tells about her
ordeal while in detention, at a foreign correspondents forum in this Sep-
tember 26, 2018 photo taken in Manila, the Philippines. Memories of
the “People Power” revolt by millions of Filipinos who helped overthrow
Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos 36 years ago are bittersweet for
Rosales, who opposed him as an activist and was arrested and tortured
by his forces before his downfall. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)
By Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan
The Associated Press
ANILA, The Philippines — Memories of the
“People Power” revolt by millions of Filipinos
who helped overthrow Philippine dictator
Ferdinand Marcos 36 years ago are bittersweet for
Loretta Rosales, who opposed him as an activist and was
arrested and tortured by his forces before his downfall.
Her battle has gone full circle.
The euphoria over that triumph of democracy in Asia
has faded through the years and now looks upended with
the late dictator’s son and namesake a leading candidate
in the May 9 presidential election. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s
rise loomed large as the Southeast Asian nation marked
the anniversary in February of the army-backed uprising
that toppled Marcos and became a harbinger of change in
authoritarian regimes worldwide.
“It puzzles and dismays me,” said Rosales, who remains
a pro-democracy activist at age 82 and is now raising
alarms over Marcos Jr. She expressed fears he will take
after his father and seek to cover up his crimes and
failures.
Rosales was among human-rights victims who asked
the Commission on Elections to disqualify Marcos Jr. from
the presidential race because of a past tax conviction they
say showed “moral turpitude” that should bar him from
holding public office.
The commission dismissed her petition and five others.
All are now on appeal, and an additional one remains
pending but will likely also be rejected.
“This is history repeating itself,” Rosales said in an
interview. “This is round two.”
Marcos Jr., 64, who has served as a governor,
congressman, and senator, leads popularity surveys in the
presidential race by a large margin despite his family’s
history. He has called the allegations against his father
“lies” and his campaign steadfastly focuses on a call for
unity while staying away from past controversies.
The four-day revolt that forced the elder Marcos from
power in 1986 unfolded when then-defense chief Juan
Ponce Enrile and his forces withdrew their support from
him after their coup plot against the ailing leader was
uncovered. Later joined by a top general, Fidel Ramos,
they barricaded themselves in two military camps along
the main EDSA highway in the capital, where a Roman
Catholic leader summoned Filipinos to bring food and
support the mutinous troops.
A mammoth crowd turned up and served as a human
shield for the defectors. Rosary-clutching nuns, priests,
and civilians kneeled in front of them and stopped tanks
deployed to crush the largely peaceful uprising.
The elder Marcos died in 1989 while in exile in Hawai‘i
without admitting any wrongdoing, including accusations
that he, his family, and cronies amassed an estimated $5
billion to $10 billion while he was in power. A Hawai‘i
M
court later found him liable for human-rights violations
and awarded $2 billion from his estate to compensate
more than 9,000 Filipinos led by Rosales who filed a
lawsuit against him for torture, extrajudicial killings,
incarceration, and disappearances.
After the Marcos family returned from exile in the early
1990s, Marcos Jr. decided to run for congress to protect his
family from being hounded politically, he told broadcast
journalist Korina Sanchez-Roxas in a recent interview.
In Rosales’s suburban Manila home, a wall is filled with
mementos of a life of activism, including as a member of
the House of Representatives for nine years and later as
head of the Commission on Human Rights until 2015. The
only reminder of the worst moments is a grainy military
mugshot showing her with a tense smile and carrying a
nameplate with the scribbled date 4 Aug 76. That was
when she and five other anti-Marcos activists were
arrested by military agents while meeting in a restaurant
four years after Marcos placed the Philippines under
martial law in 1972.
“I was smiling, that was before the torture,” Rosales
said.
For about two days in a military hideout, her captors
blindfolded her and clipped wires on her fingers and toes
and ran streams of electricity that caused her body to
convulse wildly, she said. Her mouth was gagged so she
could not scream. At other times, she said she was
subjected to Russian roulette, in which a captor pointed a
revolver to her head and pulled the trigger several times
to force her to inform on other activists. “There was sexual
molestation,” said Rosales, who was eventually freed.
Nearly four decades after democracy was restored, the
Philippines remains mired in poverty, corruption, in-
equality, long-running communist and Muslim insur-
gencies, and political divisions. Pre-pandemic economic
growth mostly benefitted the wealthiest families and
failed to lift millions from desperation. At the height of the
pandemic, unemployment and hunger worsened to record
levels.
“Ordinary Filipinos look at these realities and they
question whether this is really what they want,”
Manila-based academic and analyst Richard Heydarian
said, adding that disenchantment over the failures of
liberal reformist politics in the post-dictatorship era
steadily grew. “This is where Marcos came in and said we
are the ultimate alternative.”
Many Filipinos remember relative peace and quiet
under martial law in the 1970s as well as lavish
infrastructure projects, and Marcos Jr. has promised
increased prosperity and peace.
His current strong following did not emerge overnight.
As a vice presidential candidate in 2016, he won more
than 14 million votes, losing to Leni Robredo by only
263,000 votes.
Robredo, the leading liberal opposition candidate in the
presidential race, ranks second in most popularity polls
but is far behind Marcos Jr. three months before the vote.
In a measure of how history has shifted, Enrile, now 98,
has endorsed Marcos Jr.’s candidacy. Ex-army Col.
Gregorio Honasan, a key leader of the coup plot against
the elder Marcos, has been adopted by Marcos Jr. in his
senatorial slate. Honasan, 73, said he has not decided
whom to support among the presidential aspirants but
that the choice of the people should be respected.
“If the Filipino people decide to have a collective
national amnesia and say, ‘let’s give another Marcos a
chance,’ who are we to question that?” Honasan said in an
interview.
Rosales, who backs Robredo, remains hopeful and
pointed to large numbers of volunteers who are
campaigning for the current vice president on social
media and across the country due to exasperation over
corrupt and inept politicians.
“This volunteerism is a new kind of resistance,” Rosales
said. “It is people power.”
Associated Press journalist Kiko Rosario contributed to this report.
Welcome Home!
Tu Phan
Knights of Pythias Active
Retirement Center
3409 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98663
Phone: (360) 696-4375
Website: www.koprc.com
Options for seniors 62 +
and under 62 with disability
Branch Manager, NMLS #7916
Call about
refinances & purchases
Offering
FHA/VA/Conventional Mortgages
(503) 780-6872
5
7 1
<tu.phan@fairwaymc.com>
<www.LoansNow.com>
12817 S.E. 93rd Ave.
Clackamas, OR 97015
Copyright©2018 Fairway Independent Mortgage
Corporation. NMLS#2289. 4750 S. Biltmore Lane,
Madison, WI 53718, 1-877-699-0353. All rights
reserved. Fairway is not affiliated with any
government agencies. These materials are not
from HUD or FHA and were not approved by
HUD or a government agency. This is not an offer
to enter into an agreement. Not all customers will
qualify. Information, rates and programs are subject
to change without notice. All products are subject to
credit and property approval. Other restrictions
and limitations may apply. Equal Housing Lender.
4
6
9
8 3
4
6
8
3 1 7
5
5
4
9 8 5
2
7
8
6
9
5 2
3
7 8
6
5
EASY
Difficulty
level: Easy
# 55
#59714
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Subsidized and affordable Private Pay Rates
Call or e-mail for more information:
(360) 696-4375 or lori@koprc.com
We offer options for a lunch meal,
housekeeping and laundry.
Centrally located in uptown Vancouver, WA
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
Puzzle #64187 (Hard)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
5
1
7
8
6
4
2
9
3
6
9
4
2
3
5
1
8
7
3
2
8
1
7
9
6
4
5
9
6
1
5
4
7
8
3
2
4
8
5
9
2
3
7
1
6
2
7
3
6
1
8
9
5
4
1
5
6
3
9
2
4
7
8
8
4
9
7
5
6
3
2
1
7
3
2
4
8
1
5
6
9