Contextualizing Martial Law GBV: Gender Based Violence As A Consequence of Impunity

I.
Contextualizing Martial Law GBV
On September 21st 1972, then President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1081
placing the entire country under Martial Law. He justifies this declaration by offering
preventive and corrective reasons as to why it was necessary. Armed rebellion and a
supposed growing communist movement were touted as possible threats to the
Republic, threats grave enough to necessitate clothing President Marcos with
emergency powers. Congress was shut down, the Dictator was now the sole law-making
authority in the land, he had successfully consolidated power. While the effort to
acquire power was perhaps sinister and systematic, the methods used by the Dictator to
then keep power were far less refined. David Wurfel writes in “Martial Law in the
Philippines: The Methods of Regime Survival” that there existed a systematic effort to
attain the support of the different sectors of Philippine society. A military dictatorship
thrives off of silence, thus, dissent must be snuffed out. To keep pace with growing
dissent the brutality of the Marcos Government would grow as well.
For the Dictatorship to continue, mechanisms of the state would be mobilized in

order to sow fear. The threat of torture and death was weaponized by the
government in order to silence those who would seek to undermine their rule.
Bodies would be dumped in broad day light for the public to see in a practice
ironically called “salvaging”. Data gathered by Amnesty International shows 3,257
extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, and 70,000 incarcerations.
Gender Based Violence as a Consequence of Impunity
The culture of creating fear, emboldened and empowered the men wielding the
power to create fear. This, coupled with the impunity and lack of accountability
that usually come with dictatorships, and the power dynamic existent between
those in custody and those keeping them in custody created an environment
where Gender-Based Violence would likely thrive.
The story of Liliosa Hilao is illustrative of this point. On April of 1973, drunken soldiers
barged into the Hilao home in search of her brother. Lilli, a young activist, asked that
they provide a search warrant. They responded by striking, handcuffing, and taking her
into custody. She was found to have committed suicide while in custody. Her body
showed signs of torture and sexual abuse.
A legitimate military prerogative, at least to the extent of “legitimacy” at the time, gave
men the opportunity to satisfy their own appetites, and the dictatorship benefitted all
the same.
Gender Based Violence Weaponized
This, however is not to say that sexual abuse and degradation were simply
consequences of the personal excesses of the individual perpetrators. Rape, sexual
abuse and degradation were tools of fear used by the Marcos Regime. They were indeed
products of the culture of impunity, but they were products sharpened to a point and
weaponized. The account of Father Benjamin Alforoque, as written in “Never
Again” is illustrative. A seminarian at the time of his detention, he was accused of
being a member of the NPA, his captors, aware of his religious devotion would
use sex and talk of sex to mentally torture him. In the evening as well, they would
make him listen to acts of sexual violence they would commit.
Comparing GBV In Different Contexts
Contrast this with GBV during WWII where a hatred for the enemy and blind love for
country and the emperor emboldened Japanese soldiers to commit acts of GBV. They
saw their victims as not only enemies of their beloved country, but as inferior, as mere
objects to be used as a war time “comfort”. The commission of acts of GBV was
deemed as a war-time necessity. The victims of GBV during the Marcos Regime were not
taken indiscriminately, they were dissenters, activists, rebels. The commission of GBV
was used to further a political cause, to terrify both the victims and the public. Equally
heinous acts of a different nature.
II. Transitional Justice Mechanisms
Incomplete Justice
Much like the aftermath of the Second World War, the pursuit of justice was at best
incomplete. The Dictator and his family had fled the country, but many still in government
sought to insulate themselves from accountability. The utilization of governmental mechanisms
for the commission on human rights violations meant that the Marcos Regime had undermined
the Philippine institution itself. Individual liability for individual violators was thus not pursued.
Instead, The Aquino Administration decided to correct the damaged system itself. Established
were the PCGG in order to retrieve the Marcos wealth and the PCHR to address human rights
violations.
In Elusive Promise: Transitional Justice in the Philippines, The Filipino Culture of forgiveness is
named as one of the factors in the lack of post martial law justice. As soon as the Dictatorship
was toppled and the Marcoses had fled, the public seemed to gradually lose interest. The
gradual loss of interest then grew into a revision of history. Impunity had given the Dictator
power, and today indifference has appeared to give him a legacy.
Two steps back
Also much like the current issue suffered by the Comfort Women in their pursuit of
recognition by Japan, there exists an effort to undermine and discredit the struggles of
victims of abuse. Journalist Raissa Robles, in her book “Never Again” writes that the
“..impunity, silence and lack of closure..” have given way for the dictator’s family to plant
doubt as to the veracity of Martial Law abuse claims. A notable consequence perhaps of
tyranny, is that tyrants seek to wipe clean the legacies of other tyrants.

Contextualizing Martial Law GBV: Gender Based Violence As A Consequence of Impunity

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Contextualizing Martial Law GBV: Gender Based Violence As A Consequence of Impunity

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Contextualizing Martial Law GBV: Gender Based Violence As A Consequence of Impunity

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

I.

Contextualizing Martial Law GBV

For the Dictatorship to continue, mechanisms of the state would be mobilized in

Gender Based Violence as a Consequence of Impunity

Gender Based Violence Weaponized

Comparing GBV In Different Contexts

Two steps back

You might also like