User:Alternativity/sandbox/Human Rights Abuses under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos

Marcos administration (1965 - 1986)
On 21 September 1972, then President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in the Philippines. Marcos gave the armed forces the power to "prevent or suppress… any act of insurrection or rebellion" which compromised the people's rights. A total of 398 disappearances, 1,388 extrajudicial killings, and 1,499 killed or wounded in massacres were recorded but not every victim was accounted for.

After the declaration of Martial Law, Marcos issued six (6) general orders and an instruction to close privately owned media facilities. The Press Secretary, Francisco Tatad, and Secretary for National Defense, Juan Ponce Enrile, were ordered by Marcos "to take over and control or cause the taking over and control of all such newspapers, magazines, radio and television facilities and all other media communications..." The information released to the public was highly censored and prevented journalists from releasing any suspicious information about the administration. Failure to abide would lead to arrest.

The assassination of Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino triggered the peaceful 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, led by Aquino's wife, Corazon "Cory" Aquino. The peaceful revolution united the nation in a call against Marcos to uphold their human rights. It led to the abolition of Martial Law (de facto abolished in 1981 ), the exile of the Marcos family, as well as Cory Aquino's rise to the presidency.