To Martial Law

The story has been told and tried to be forgotten by the Filipino people. This story has pained the nation and taught us to rise again. Yet, no matter how hard we try to bury the memories of the past we cannot forget that sometime during the month of September in 1972, we were robbed of freedom.

This isn’t sarcasm but thanks a lot, Martial Law.

I was not born yet when it happened. I only heard the endless stories of raids, closures, confiscations, incarcerations and tortures. They were all very unjust, some were even unreasonable. It was as if we were their robots and a single failure meant termination of the machine. But we weren’t, we were humans after all.

I could only imagine the rights that were trampled on and the words that were silenced. There was nothing to say, unless you spoke of them, their family and their prominence. If you did that during that time, you were saved from every possible punishment.

For a long period, the press submitted to the authoritarian rule of the dictator who only wanted to look good to the public and to the world.

But the press weren’t as shallow as that. We knew who we are and what we deserve. It was freedom, press freedom. I cannot fathom the stories between the Martial Law regime and the press that were written and told for many years.

However, the more I heard, the more I realized how it taught us to be great.

Press Freedom was robbed, yes. But this didn’t stop the press from giving information that the Filipino nation needed. Inquisitive and intuitive as we are, we found ways like we always do.

It was then that the alternative press rose. Xerox Journalism and Tape journalism surfaced.

My teacher once narrated her experience in smuggling Xerox copies of statements from Cebu to Cagayan, praying that with each checkpoint by the military she won’t be arrested. She said she was willing to give up her fear just to get the message across.

The media knew what agenda to set back then. That’s how media works according to great communication theorists such as McCombs and Shaw.

That is why it is out of the question why the Filipinos responded in a very patriotic manner when the news broke out.

The instruction was to go to EDSA. They prayed, they waited and they won. With the people’s hands gripped tightly together with sweat dripping from their foreheads, the dictatorship tumbled down. The people rose, hence the term “people power.”

They mayhem didn’t only happen in Manila, it was in Cebu, too. There are countless stories of the hardships the Cebuanos and the Cebu media went through. We are just as privileged as them to have our press freedom back. Media’s connection to democracy is a thick solid line that nobody can steal again.

As a young writer enjoying this space and sharing my stories to you, there is much I owe to those who fought for freedom.

And so, as this week has been filled with forums and programs that the media industry is busy about, we remember the time of the year where we celebrate the victory and the sweet fight. We commemorate the story of how we were robbed of a gem and how we acquired it again. Today we see the democracy that we now enjoy after years of struggle. To answer why we celebrate press freedom week, the whole story is the answer.

So thank you once again, Martial law. For the lessons learned and the stories to share.