Religious sector resistance against the Marcos dictatorship
Religious sector opposition against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos included leaders and workers belonging to different beliefs and denominations.
Christian
Many of these leaders and workers belonged to the Catholic Church in the Philippines, to which belonged the majority of the Philippine population at the time. But various opposition efforts were also notable in both the mainline and the evangelical protestant traditions.In the Catholic Church
In the early years of the Marcos administration before the declaration of Martial Law, the poverty and inequality in Philippine society had already begun sparking debates among Catholic theologians about how the church ought to respond. The Second Vatican Council had just concluded in December 1965 and Liberation theology was becoming increasingly influential. Some priests wanted to be more directly involved in activism and with activist organizations resisting the Marcos dictatorship, while those who were more conservative preferred that the pursuit of "the prophetic challenge of the gospel" be "without any ideological affiliation."After the declaration of Martial law, the Marcos dictatorship's abuses - particularly extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances - convinced a small but very vocal number of the church workers to fight the dictatorship by actively joining underground resistance movements, while the majority resisted within the ordinary means available to then through their office, such as those who formed the human rights monitoring organization Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, or of Manila Cardinal Jaime Sin and Infanta Bishop Julio Labayen, who described their high level engagement with Marcos as "critical collaboration."
After the ouster and exile of the Marcoses in 1986, there began to be less space for activists in the Church, and engagements between church workers and activist organizations went into decline.
In a 2021 international conference held in Taiwan, Daniel Franklin E. Pilario of the Congregation of the Mission presented a paper on a Philippine experience, noting among others that the implementation of the politics of fear and terror present in populist regimes is the same style of governance found in the country; later, because of his mentions of extrajudicial killings during the Marcos dictatorship and the Rodrigo Duterte presidency, he was called an anti-EJK priest.
Among the Protestant denominations
While protestants represented a much smaller portion of the Philippine population in relation to Catholics during the 1970s, there were significant opposition movements within the various Protestant denominations, whether mainline or evangelical.Among the mainline protestant denominations, there were significant opposition movements within the Philippine Independent Church, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and the United Methodist Church in the Philippines.
Because evangelical denominations tend towards locally independent congregations and are thus less centralized, the most prominent evangelical opposition was in organizations like the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture and individual congregations like the Diliman Bible Church, and among the evangelical Pentecostal churches, the Foursquare Church in Romblon. The Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture and the Diliman Bible Church played a key role in the formation of the Konsensiya ng Febrero Siete coalition which mobilized evangelicals during the 1986 People Power revolution.
Muslim
had been targeted by repressive policies of the Marcos Administration since even before the imposition of Martial Law in 1972, with the Jabidah Massacre of 18 March 1968 being a watershed moment for discontent. The Muslim Independence Movement was formed two months later on 1 May 1968, although it was sidelined only five months later when its leader, former Cotabato governor Datu Udtog Matalam, joined the Marcos Administration as Adviser on Muslim Affairs. Although the MIM failed to gain the support of the Muslim masses, President Marcos used its existence as one of the reasons for proclaiming Martial Law on 23 September 1972. In December 1972 the MIM ceased to exist when Matalam surrendered to Marcos, although a splinter group, the Moro National Liberation Front, had earlier formed in October 1972.Indigenous faiths
Religious beliefs of indigenous Filipinos also factored into their opposition against the Marcos dictatorship, the most popular example being the Kalinga and Bontoc peoples' resistance against Marcos' Chico River Dam Project in Luzon, in no small part because ancestral lands are sacred in their belief systems. The subsequent assassination of the Kalinga Butbut tribe Pangat Macli-ing Dulag on 24 April 1980 led to the first major news story coverage critical of Marcos administration policies during Martial Law, dealing a severe blow to the public relations efforts of the Marcos regime.Religious publications
Upon the declaration of martial law, the government closed down or took over newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television stations. Only news organizations owned or taken over by relatives or cronies of Ferdinand Marcos were allowed to reopen.However, underground publications were established and a few independent publications were later able to operate. The Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines came out with a weekly mimeographed publication called Various Reports, which printed stories on military atrocities and other human rights violations. It printed limited copies distributed among the religious community. In 1975, AMRSP began publishing Signs of the Times, which printed stories on the La Tondeña strike in October 1975, the first big strike to defy martial law. Circulation of Signs grew from a handful to thousands of copies. Its last issue was published on November 26, 1976, before its offices were raided by the military.
Major events
Before the declaration of Martial Law
- December 30, 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos is sworn in as the tenth president of the Philippines, under the Third Republic.
- May 21, 1967 - A demonstration conducted by Lapiang Malaya sect ends in a violent dispersal attempt by the Philippine Constabulary, killing 33.
- March 18, 1968 - The Jabidah Massacre, where 68 Muslim members of a secret commando unit recruited by the Armed Forces of the Philippines are killed when they refuse further training.
After the declaration of Martial Law
- August 24, 1974 - The Sacred Heart Novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Novaliches is raided by the military, who were allegedly searching for Communist Party of the Philippines leader Jose Maria Sison. Jesuit priest Jose Blanco is arrested as a suspected rebel.
- May 12–13, 1975 - The Episcopal Commission on Tribal Filipinos of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines helped organize bodong involving 150 Bontoc and Kalinga leaders and Catholic Church-based support groups, at St. Bridget's School in eastern Quezon City. The Quezon City bodong resulted in an agreement which united the Bontoc and Kalinga people in opposition against the Chico River Dam Project, which would have submerged sacred tribal lands, and the Marcos Administration, which was pushing for the project to push through.
- April 24, 1980 - Macli-ing Dulag, Pangat of the Butbut tribe of Kalinga, is assassinated for his resistance efforts against the Chico River Dam Project
- January 17, 1981 - As a public relations move – partly in light of the visit of Pope John Paul II to the Philippines, and partly in light of the upcoming inauguration of United States President Ronald Reagan – Ferdinand Marcos issues Proclamation No. 2405, formally lifting the state of Martial Law nationwide. He nonetheless retained most of his powers as dictator, including "the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for crimes related to subversion, insurrection, rebellion, and also conspiracy to commit such crimes."
- February 17–22, 1981 - Pope John Paul II makes his first apostolic visit to the Philippines. He declares in a speech that "Even in exceptional situations that may at times arise, one can never justify any violation of the fundamental dignity of the human person or of the basic rights that safeguard this dignity."
- February 22, 1986 - Speaking on Catholic Church-owned Radio Veritas, Cardinal Jaime Sin, the reigning Archbishop of Manila, broadcasts an appeal urging Filipinos to peacefully gather on EDSA to protect forces that had defected from the Marcos government.
- February 26, 1986 - From Clark Air Base, the Marcos family and a select group of close followers, leave the country for exile in Hawaii.
Martyrs and Heroes honored at the ''Bantayog ng mga Bayani''