21/09/2026
ENGLISH IN CAPTION: MARTIAL LAW
Why it should never be forgotten.
And the lessons from the past that the Filipinx-German community should take into account.
what happened?
Marcos signed the Proclamation No. 1081 dated September 21, but only announced publicy on September 23, 1972.
But why September 21? Marcos was reportedly obsessed with the number 7 (3x7=21) as a “lucky” number.
A tiny but telling detail about how personal power, and not law, drove the decision.
the Cost
Under Martial Law, Marcos was able to:
• Shut down the media and crushed press freedom.
• Thousands arrested, tortured, and extrajudicially killed.
• Estimated 70,000+ detained, per human rights documentation.
how Filipinxs overcame ML?
Martial Law didn’t end because power was given back. Filipinox people took it back.
• For four days, millions of Filipinxs went to the streets.
• Human rights advocates fought in the frontline.
• On Feb. 25, 1986: Marcos fled the country. People Power won.
the Lesson
People Power was not a fairy tale ending. It was just the beginning.
The creation of the 1987 Philippine Constitution ensured that Never Again would not end up only as a hashtag:
👉 Term limits are set on the president for 6 years.
👉 A ban on a president declaring martial law without time limits or congressional and judicial checks.
👉 Creation of the Commission on Human Rights.
what People Power taught us
Democracy isn’t self-repairing.
It requires:
• A free unafraid press
• Institutions willing to say no to abusive power
• Ordinary people who refuse to look away
• Accurate Memory. Because dictatorships don’t survive on arms and weapons alone. They survive on people forgetting, or being deceived through disinformation.
why this matters for Filipinxs in Germany
👉 Many of us and our kids never learn this in a German classroom.
👉 Disinformation and “golden age” nostalgia about the Marcos era spreads on social media, including within diaspora communities.
👉 Historical distortion doesn’t stop at the Philippines’ borders. It travels wherever Filipinxs are online.
a parallel worth sitting with:
Germany has its own reckoning with fascist history – and its own live deba
