YouTube Video — Transcript

And then there was a network of people that were anti-imperialist.

Our objective was to show that the regime was screwing up.

There was so much foreign aid going to the Philippines, but it was not working.

A lot of the aid was going to Marcos's hands.

Meanwhile, others had come to the conclusion that freedom could not be regained through peaceful means.

The New People's Army, or NPA, the Communist Party's armed wing,

were engaged in bloody guerrilla warfare, ambushing government soldiers in order to gather arms.

What pushed me to join the armed struggle were the abuses of soldiers used by Marcos.

That's how the fight goes, to fight for your rights, you had to resort to violence, because they were using violence.

Even Catholic priests were supporting the armed resistance.

In tribal culture, there's no honor in being a martyr.

You have to fight back.

I finally decided to fight martial law, to fight the fascist Marcos dictatorship through armed revolution.

I see that as a contribution to humanity because the fascist character of the state is not just a national issue but an international issue.

The National Democratic Front, or NDF, was organized as an alliance of various anti-dictatorship forces in the underground.

In Mindanao, armed Muslims engaged in large-scale battles.

Immediately after martial law was declared, a thousand Muslims attacked the city of Marawi.

Two years later, the city of Jolo was overrun by the Moro National Liberation Front and its Bangsa Moro Army under the leadership of Nur Misuari.

The military bombarded Jolo and set fire to it to push back the Muslim warriors.

Thousands died in the bombardment.

The Muslims, finding themselves relegated to the sidelines, becoming marginalized, deprived of their basic rights, were left with no option but to fight.

The peaceful nonviolent option would have been a better option taken, but because of the declaration of martial law, there was no way you could negotiate and talk peace.

Slowly, through separate actions, by virtue of little victories and in spite of big defeats, the people gathered strength.

Still, the debate continued on the correct form of struggle to bring down the Marcos regime.

One answer reverberated in 1978, in Metro Manila, the center of the dictatorship's power.

A new form of protest appeared, daring and fearless, armed not with guns and bullets, but with pots and honking car horns.

The unexpected protest rattled the military regime.

1978, six years had passed since the declaration of martial law.

The Marcos regime had established diplomatic ties with China and Libya, the countries that supported the Communist and Muslim rebellions.

Nur Misuari, chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front, had entered into a peace pact, the Tripoli Agreement.

Victor Corpus, the military official who had defected to the NPA in 1970, had surrendered and was detained in a military camp.

Jose Ma Sison, chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and Bernabe Buscayno, alias Commander Dante, chief of the New People's Army, had been captured and imprisoned.

Ninoy Aquino, who was tried by a military tribunal along with Buscayno and Corpus, had been sentenced to suffer the penalty of death by firing squad.

Every now and then in the cities, there were small protest actions.

The armed resistance had not been crushed in the countryside.

But on the whole, the martial law regime seemed stable.

Marcos thought he was in full control.

He only needed to make his rule appear legal, legitimate, in accordance with democratic processes.

He agreed to hold elections for the Interim National Assembly, the very first elections under martial law.

Everyone knew the elections were for show, a rigged affair.

The dictatorship would surely resort to fraud and terror.

But the legal opposition decided to participate in the polls just to show there was resistance to the dictatorship.

They organized an alliance called LABAN, People's Power.

Their frontrunner, Ninoy Aquino, who was still in prison.

April 6, 1978, the night before Election Day.

That night, the military regime was rocked by a new form of protest.

The noise barrage.

All night long in Metro Manila, the noise was ear-splitting.

In six years of martial rule, never before had there been a protest action as loud and explosive as this.

The noise barrage gave proof that the candidates of LABAN had widespread support.

At a wedding party with generals present, the guests started striking their glasses with forks.

Everyone went clink-clink-clink!

Even the generals joined in.

But when the counting was over, all the Metro Manila candidates of the New Society Party had won.

How in the world could Ninoy lose in that campaign?

He was a hero at that time.

He would have squeezed through.

But if he was elected, they would have to release him.

So they cancelled the canvassing.

We have a saying.

A wounded hero grows even braver.

We decided to march to demonstrate at the headquarters of the Commission on Elections.

Suddenly we heard a whistle.

Someone shouted, "Halt! You are all under arrest!"

Instinctively we all linked arms, Tañada, Tito Guingona, Ernie Rondon, Soc Rodrigo, Joker, we linked arms.

And we were jailed for two months.

And we were jailed for two months, then suddenly we were released, no case was filed against us, maybe they just got sick of us, they said, "Go on home!"

At this time the Catholic Church had become combative.

In their dealings with the military dictatorship, the Church hierarchy had followed a policy that they called "critical collaboration."

They criticized the regime's abuses, but collaborated on projects that seemed to benefit the people.

Because if the Church did not speak, who will speak?

The Church did not speak so much as when the government steps on the rights of people, then naturally the Church as a mother, it has to do something to protect these people.

Another sector became bolder and more active.

The concerned artists, in song and poem, in painting and sculpture, in theater and film, they exposed the true face of poverty that the regime tried hard to hide.

They dared to show the reality of a corrupt system, resisting the call made by the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, to show only "the true, the good and the beautiful."

However, after the noise barrage, others opposed to martial law were not content with marches and demos.

They thought the nonviolent method was inappropriate and inutile.