Life in the Philippines

Rosalia Atiga made her way with me into a quiet room in the far back away from the world.  As I set up the tape recorder, she slowly nestled her body into a nice comfortable chair.  As I gazed at my grandmother, you could tell she was in a deep trance of recalling those deep far away memories.  During her time living in the Philippines she lived during a time when they had no freedom of speech to talk against their president.  This was the reign of President Marcos.  President Marcos was elected for two terms.  In 1972 he declared that he would stay in power and this was when he declared Martial law. 

I grew up in a village near the major cities.  I lived there from 1965 to 1986 when President Marcos came.  Marcos was a good President but things got a little worse when he came to power.  In my daily life in the Philippines during this time I was an English teacher.  In the Philippines there were a few numbers of free presses.  Some of the newspapers that I remember were the Philippine Frat Press and the Manila Bulletin.  They were limited on what they said about what they said in general and about President Marcos.

The majority of the religion was mostly Catholic.  Marcos did not force anyone to be one certain religion he let them chose what they wanted.  Oh, yes there were minor ones like Prodestant.  There were different ones like Seventh Day Adventist.  I was Seventh Day Adventist, and even now I am still Seventh Day Adventist.  They had religions like Inglusion Cristo and Jehovah Witness.  They still have those religions there, even today.

At that time the police were kind of corrupt.  Personally I didn’t bribe the police.  Other people were able to bribe them though.  Well, when the police arrested you could they could send you to jail but, many times if you have money to give them then they will let you go.  Well, some of the people that went to jail were asked to do jobs and would be guarded heavily when put in jail.  I did not know anybody that went to jail.  They would put you in separate cells.  Everybody in the Philippines was afraid to talk out against Marcos or talk bad about him because they were afraid of being put in jail. 

They did torture to people in the Philippines.  They tortured people that didn’t obey or listen to them.  Also, if they didn’t cooperate when they were questioned they would be tortured.  The leaders of the land tried not to torture anyone.  They tortured them if they didn’t get any information from them.  They hit them and did physical harm to them. When put in jail you would be punished by getting wiped but they don’t really say what kind of tortures they would endure.

Well, maybe before, they were able to get a speedy trial when they were under American rule.  Well, they were able to because things were better then. When they were still under American rule you were able to.  When Marcos came to power however it all changed.  It depends again if you know people in high places.  You might be able to get off Scott free.  If you had influence and if you had money, then you can also buy the judges or the lawyers.  In some of the cases you could do that.

You could vote for any candidate that you wanted to vote for.  They had some good politics, but mostly bad ones.  When Marcos was running for President they couldn’t vote for anyone else.  When he ran again for his second term he won automatically.  This is when he declared Martial Law and declared to be President for life.  The materials that they exported were maybe coconuts.  Like coconut milk and anything from a coconut.  I’m not to sure now which countries they traded with.  Maybe they traded with countries in the East and South Asia.   

President Marcos gave us freedom but not that much.  When he declared Martial law there wasn’t that much freedom.  When he declared Martial Law people were not allowed to leave the country or to enter the country.  President Marcos was President for a long time before he was removed.  President Regan made him leave because it was getting worse at that time.   In fact, if he didn’t leave the Philippines he probably would have been President for life.