Description
In her book Marcos Martial Law Never Again – winner of the 2017 National Book Awards for Non-Fiction – investigative journalist and award-winning political blogger Raissa Robles guides the reader through a brief history of the torture and atrocities committed by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ New Society.
Current estimates place the count of victims at 3,700 murdered, 40,000 tortured and up to 100,000 illegally detained. The victims did not receive the benefit of any legal procedure, they were simply rounded up without any warrants and locked up for as long as it suited the regime. They were simply labeled “subversives” and “public order violators”. Often, no charges were ever filed against them. They were the victims of the military and police – the very institutions that were supposed to protect the people.
Robles’ book uses official records, reports, books, eyewitness accounts and interviews with both torture survivors and military officers accused of torture to situate the regime’s crimes within a brief historical narrative that relates how and why Marcos declared Martial Law and what happened afterward, including how Marcos died in Hawaii.
Among the things Robles’ book reveals, from 1969 to 1986, Ilocos Norte province saw only three extra-judicial killings – all during Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s tenure as governor.
The book, which was edited by award-winning journalist Alan Robles, and designed by highly acclaimed book designer Felix Mago Miguel, is published by the Filipinos for a Better Philippines.
Twenty three various personalities were interviewed, including Retired Colonel Eduardo Matillano, who was once tried by a military court for torture and acquitted; Senator Panfilo Lacson, President Fidel V. Ramos, President Benigno Aquino, III; and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.
