Primary and Secondary Sources

This activity allows you to experience what historians do in writing history.
You can go to library and find newspapers or history books. Choose one event
in the Philippines which happened in the past 30 years. Find other documents
(both primary and secondary sources)
and try to compare all the accounts. After doing this, go to your town or place
and find people who have knowledge on the chosen historical subject.
Interview him/her/them and see whose narratives corroborative. Record the
said interview through video. Attach the video in your Google Classroom.
You can group yourselves in 3-4 persons. At the end of the process, write the
result of your interview in yellow paper.
PRIMARY SOURCE
The Martial law in the Philippines gives a positive and negative impacts on the
lives of the Filipinos. The primary sources where the articles or studies written
by authors during the Martial law era and those are the people who experienced
Martial Law first handedly. Based on my research, I observed that primary
sources focuses more on the positive side of the Martial Law. They gives
emphasis to the goal of the Martial Law, there subjects were the positive of
objectives of the Martial Law which is to stop the domination of CPP-NPA in
the country. This is due to the increasing terrorisms and crimes in the country
that brings terror to the Filipinos. Martial Law was supposed to be peaceful, it
should discipline the citizens without violence. As what the newspaper says in
President Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law “But civilian government still
functions; no military take over”.
Martial Law was supposed to bring betterment in our country but everything
didn’t go well according to the plan. There are abusive militaries who abuse
their powers to maltreat the civilians. As what our interviewee who experienced
Martial Law says, the abusive militaries takes the civilians for granted. They
were unfair and opt to violence if they weren’t followed. There were many
victims of injustices during the Martial Law and President Marcos’ failed to
control the abusive militaries and he failed to protect his people. This injustices
during the Martial Law was the focus of the secondary sources. They pinpoint
the flaws of the Martial Law, they used the voices of those victims to go against
the late President Marcos.
In conclusion, we should look on the two sides of the story, we should avoid
being one sided.. Yes there are people who experienced peacefulness during the
Martial Law, there are parts of the countries which the Martial Law was
implemented accordingly and rightfully. However, there are also people who
experienced cruelties and violence under the abusive militaries during Martial
Law. We should not invalidate the experiences of others just because we
experienced better life than them. Instead of arguing whether Martial Law was
good or bad, we should start acknowledging that Martial Law was the both good
and bad. It brings positive and negative impacts in our country.
SECONDARY SOURCE
Martial law
In September 1972 Marcos declared martial law, claiming that it was the last
defense against the rising disorder caused by increasingly violent student
demonstrations, the alleged threats of communist insurgency by the new
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and the Muslim separatist
movement of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). One of his first
actions was to arrest opposition politicians in Congress and the Constitutional
Convention. Initial public reaction to martial law was mostly favourable except
in Muslim areas of the south, where a separatist rebellion, led by the MNLF,
broke out in 1973. Despite halfhearted attempts to negotiate a cease-fire, the
rebellion continued to claim thousands of military and civilian casualties.
Communist insurgency expanded with the creation of the National Democratic
Front (NDF), an organization embracing the CPP and other communist groups.
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos, 1972.
Slim Aarons/Getty Images
Under martial law the regime was able to reduce violent urban crime, collect
unregistered firearms, and suppress communist insurgency in some areas. At the
same time, a series of important new concessions were given to foreign
investors, including a prohibition on strikes by organized labour, and a land-
reform program was launched. In January 1973 Marcos proclaimed the
ratification of a new constitution based on the parliamentary system, with
himself as both president and prime minister. He did not,
however, convene the interim legislature that was called for in that document.
General disillusionment with martial law and with the consolidation of political
and economic control by Marcos, his family, and close associates grew during
the 1970s. Despite growth in the country’s gross national product, workers’ real
income dropped, few farmers benefited from land reform, and the sugar
industry was in confusion. The precipitous drop in sugar prices in the early
1980s coupled with lower prices and less demand for coconuts and coconut
products—traditionally the most important export commodity—added to the
country’s economic woes; the government was forced to borrow large sums
from the international banking community. Also troubling to the regime, reports
of widespread corruption began to surface with increasing frequency.
Elections for an interim National Assembly were finally held in 1978. The

opposition—of which the primary group was led by the jailed former
senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.—produced such a bold and popular campaign
that the official results, which gave Marcos’s opposition virtually no seats, were
widely believed to have been illegally altered. In 1980 Aquino was allowed to
go into exile in the United States, and the following year, after announcing the
suspension of martial law, Marcos won a virtually uncontested election for a
new six-year term.
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos waving, 1983.
A1C Virgil C. Zurbruegg//U.S. Department of Defense
The downfall of Marcos and return of democratic government
The assassination of Benigno Aquino as he returned to Manila in August 1983

was generally thought to have been the work of the military; it became the focal
point of a renewed and more heavily supported opposition to Marcos’s rule. By
late 1985 Marcos, under mounting pressure both inside and outside the
Philippines, called a snap presidential election for February 1986. Corazon C.
Aquino, Benigno’s widow, became the candidate of a coalition of opposition
parties. Marcos was declared the official winner, but strong public outcry over
the election results precipitated a revolt that by the end of the month had driven
Marcos from power. Aquino then assumed the presidency.
Corazon Aquino
Corazon Aquino (right), 1986.
Gerald B. Johnson/U.S. Department of Defense
Aquino’s great personal popularity and widespread international support were
instrumental in establishing the new government. Shortly after taking office, she
abolished the constitution of 1973 and began ruling by decree. A new
constitution was drafted and was ratified in February 1987 in a general
referendum; legislative elections in May 1987 and the convening of a new
bicameral congress in July marked the return of the form of government that
had been present before the imposition of martial law in 1972.
Euphoria over the ouster of Marcos proved to be short-lived, however. The new
government had inherited an enormous external debt, a severely depleted
economy, and a growing threat from Moro and communist insurgents. The
Aquino administration also had to weather considerable internal dissension,
repeated coup attempts, and such natural disasters as a major earthquake and the
1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. The resumption of active partisan politics,
moreover, was the beginning of the end of the coalition that had brought Aquino
to power. Pro-Aquino candidates had won a sweeping victory in the 1987
legislative elections, but there was less support for her among those elected to
provincial and local offices in early 1988. By the early 1990s
the criticisms against her administration—i.e., charges of weak leadership,
corruption, and human rights abuses—had begun to stick.
Clark Air Base

Buildings and vegetation at Clark Air Base, Philippines, destroyed by a thick,
wet layer of ash following the gigantic explosion of Mount Pinatubo on June 15,
1991.
Willie Scott/U.S. Geological Survey
Gregorio C. Borlaza
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References:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Philippines/Martial-law

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This activity allows you to experience what historians do in writing history.

Elections for an interim National Assembly were finally held in 1978. The

The assassination of Benigno Aquino as he returned to Manila in August 1983

Clark Air Base

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