15/09/2026
It was 45 years ago, on September 15, 1981, when a brutal slaughter of 45 men, women, and children in Barrio Sag-Od, Las Navas, Northern Samar occurred.
On that day, a group of armed men from the Special Forces-Integrated Civilian Home Defense Force—a paramilitary troop which served as private security for San Jose Timber Corporation, a logging company owned by the then-defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile—entered the barrio and forced the residents to gather in the lawn of the barangay captain. They separated the men from the women and children, and had the women and children march away. Those who were left behind were massacred, but even the marching mothers and their children were neither spared. From that, forty-five lives were taken.
But this was not just a random act of cruelty; it reflected the wider pattern of violence during the Martial Law, where military and paramilitary forces operated with impunity, and even serving the interests of economic players was part of their job. State forces and private wealth worked together to crush a group of ordinary citizens because they were “protecting” the state from rising insurgency, as well as “preventing” insurgent activities from meddling in business matters. But we all know, these were just to cover up the real motives and intentions of the administration.
Now, Marcos Sr. is dead. Enrile is dead. But the horrors of that tragic event remain, especially that another Marcos has taken the seat.
Today, we remember the Sag-Od massacre not just as a part of history, but as a living demand for justice never delivered, for accountability never rendered, and for reparation still owed to the survivors who have carried the grief for more than two decades.
We honor the 45 who were killed. The Nortehanons stand with the survivors, and remain committed to the struggle against state violence and oppression. The atrocities that happened in that period will never be forgotten. We will continue to make the Marcoses ashamed. We will make Marcos Jr. responsible for his father’s actions.
We remember them. We honor their memory. We commit to never forgetting.
