2. Martial
LawProclamation № 1081 was
the declaration of Martial Law in
the Philippines by President
Ferdinand E. Marcos. It became
effective throughout the entire
country on 21 September 1972, and
was announced to the public two
days later. It was formally lifted on
17 January 1981, six months before
the first presidential election in the
Philippines in twelve years.
5. Protest Literature
Protest literature—at other times, in other
contexts, referred to as revolutionary
literature, literature of engagement, combat
literature, committed literature, literature of
resistance, proletarian literature, people's
literature, socially conscious literature, and
perhaps a Philippine contribution to the
taxonomy, the literature of circumvention
(simply defined as "a body of works that
expressed social and political protest in
veiled terms")—has had a long history in the
Philippines.
6. Proletarian Literature
The call to create proletarian
literature ...was too strong to
ignore. It was deemed
unimaginable, for the committed
writer doing political work, to
still think of poetry as "beauty
recollected in tranquility"...
7. Prison Literature
Not a few writers ended up
behind bars from day one of martial
law. Journalists and prominent
political opposition figures were the
first to be ensnared in the dragnet
cast by the Marcos intelligence and
police apparatus, followed by
militant activists, including
academics who were also noted for
their critical literary writings.
8. Circumvention
Literature
It was in the precious
little space afforded,
wittingly or unwittingly, by
certain publications and
institutions sanctioned by
the martial law
administration, that the so-
called 'literature of
circumvention' began to
11. PROMETHEUS UNBOUND
Sometime in 1973, a poem
entitled "Prometheus Unbound"
appeared in Focus, a magazine
published and edited by an
established and respected
writer who had chosen to be
associated with the Marcos
regime.
12. PROMETHEUS
UNBOUND
This poem may sound too sophomoric by
half, with its profuse, seemingly overwrought
treatment of the theme from Greek mythology—
the renegade Titan called Prometheus who stole
fire from Mt. Olympus to give to mankind, surely
the mother of all liberation theologies.
A poem which brought down the anger of heaven not upon
the Promethean poet, but upon the publisher of Focus Magazine which
printed the seemingly harmless poem. It featured an acrostic, the first
letters of the lines spelling out the favorite war-chant and taunting slogan
of demonstrators all over the country: "Marcos Hitler Diktador Tuta",
the last two words among the most common sobriquets applied to the
strongman: 'dictator' and 'puppet'
13. Prison
L
I
T
E
R
A
T
U
R
E
A poem "kung ang tula ay isa lamang" ('if a
poem was just'), deceptively simple in construction
and elemental in prosody, has been held up as yet
another fine example of protest writing that does
not suffer from the sloganeering, poster-&-placard
style which proliferated during the First Quarter
Storm.
A poem which, for all intents and
purposes, summed up the social critique of
the developmentalist state propped up by
martial law and cosmeticized with
beautification campaigns and the foisting of
cultural renaissance myths
14. Days of Disquiet,
Nights of Rage
The First Quarter Storm & Related Events” by Jose F.
Lacaba (Anvil Publishing, Inc.): Originally published in 1982, before
the actual end of the Marcos era, this gripping, first-person account
of the political awakening of the Filipino youth is considered by most
to be the definitive chronicle of latent student and labor activism in
the Philippine setting. It is also the best place to begin reading up
about martial law as the wave of protests, so poetically and
powerfully reported by Lacaba, eventually runs into the stormy
shoals of what would later become the Marcos dictatorship. Here
are the seeds that bloomed into steely demonstrations on the street
for some, and total revolutionary resistance by others. Read this
book to see where all the courage came from and why it all began.
15. “Killing Time in a
Warm Place”
by Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr.
NOVEL
This textured, award-winning roman a clef is a
lovely fictionalization of Dalisay’s own experiences as
a student activist and writer during the martial law
years. At the beginning, Noel Ilustre Bulaong could
be any of us, until his quiet life in bucolic
Kangleong,is both transformed and shattered by the
all-encompassing presence of Ferdinand Marcos.
Bulaong becomes an activist and witnesses first
hand, through arrest and detention, the shadowy
hold of the Marcos era. Perhaps the most haunting
part of “Killing Time” is how everyone ended up, and
the deaths-both interior and exterior-that they
experience. A vivid tale of those dangerous years,
16. “ U.G. “
An Underground Tale
The Journey of Edgar Jopson and the First Quarter
Storm Generation” by Benjamin Pimentel, Jr. (Anvil
Publishing, Inc.): One of the most fascinating and, in turn,
tragic personalities connected with martial law was Edgar
“Edjop” Jopson. The Ateneo student council leader devoted
himself to the nascent student activist movement just in
time to face off (at one point literally) with Ferdinand
Marcos. But Jopson was serious about his struggle,
relocating with his cadre constantly to escape military
pursuit. His later death at the hands of the military makes
this story of heroism bright and sharp at the same time,
delivered with efficient and measured prose by columnist
Pimentel. It’s a true story of inspiration and sacrifice you
won’t forget. •
18. Pete Lacaba
The name
Lacaba has
become a
literary by-
word, for a
number of
reasons
In the Philippines, writers
can easily shift from poetry
and fiction to writing for
television and film, and it is
as a screenwriter that Pete
Lacaba has really created an
impact on Philippine
popular culture. His
screenplays produced during
the period of martial law
constitute further examples
of the literature of
circumvention, barely
squeezing past the censor's
nose, although they depicted
brutalized lives, social
injustice, and the political
awakening of people from
all walks of life.
He contribute to
journalism,
poetry, and
scriptwriting
have become
identified with
both literary
excellence as well
as social
relevance
(another pivotal
phrase in the
canon of protest
literature).
19. A former English instructor
at the University of the
Philippines, who spent ten
years in prison, and wrote a
whole volume of poems
(much later set to music out
of which a CD would be
made) which spoke not only
of his privations during his
incarceration, but of his
steadfast political views
The best-known
radical poet who
became a political
prisoner of the
Marcos regime was
Jose Ma. Sison,
While still behind bars, his
friends in academe and fellow
writers put together his poems
and published them in a book,
Prison and Beyond. One of the
pieces in this collection speak of
the prisoner's faith in the power
of his writings, and of his
certainty that outside his prison
cell, the struggle which he
helped launch continues.
20. A former
teacher of
English
literature at the
University of the
Philippines.
She had joined her future
husband in the guerrilla movement at the
beginning of martial law, and after he
was killed in an armed encounter, she
continued her revolutionary work as
writer and propagandist for resistance.
She published several books of poetry during the martial law period,
including two under the name Clarita Roja: Dare to Struggle, Dare
to Win! (1974) and The Mass Line /A Second Remoulding ( Manila
1977), and the rest under her real name after she had surfaced and
continued the struggle above ground— Why Cage Pigeons? (1984),
Pall Hanging over Manila (1984), and A Comrade is as Precious as a
Rice Seedling (1984, 1985 and 1987).
21. F. Sionil Jose
The first
instrument of
censorship in
1972 was the
Army Office
of Civil
Relations
which granted
licences for
new magazines
and newspapers
It also imposed
guidelines which
were often
arbitrary. Under
these guidelines, the
President, his family,
and the Armed
Forces could not be
criticized, only
praised. Before any
manuscript was
published, it had to
be examined by the
Army censors.
22. Where the
writings are
made: In Jail
Many of the
writers ended
up behind bars
from day one of
martial law.
Writers who
were prison, were
composed songs,
using newly
written lyrics or
adaptations of
patriotic poetry
from the country's
revolutionary past.
Many of the
poems written
in prison were
later
collected and
published.
Among the writers and
academics who were
imprisoned—at various times
between 1972 and 1986—were
Bienvenido Lumbera, Luis
Teodoro,, Jose Lacaba, Mila
Aguilar, Jose Y., and Jose Ma.
Sison. At the Bicutan
Rehabilitation Center—
intended to "rehabilitate"
presumably wayward elements
of society who had dared
oppose Marcos and his
oligarchy (the place was also
called Camp Bagong Diwa
meaning 'new spirit‘.
