A piece of the living memory of martial law in Bikol

By Judge Soliman M. Santos, Jr. (Retd.), Naga City

Co-editor of MGA DASO: Stories of Martial Law in Bikol (UP Press, 2025)

[Opening Remarks at the MGA DASO book launch on 21 November 2025 at Bicol University, Legazpi City]

Thank you, emcees. Thank you, Albay Arts Foundation and Bicol University for organizing and hosting this book launch. And thank you all for coming. Congratulations for surviving the recent super-damaging typhoons Opong, Pepito, Tino and Uwan, especially those of you who have come from our islas of Masbate and Catanduanes. Speaking of that “Land of the Howling Winds,” it has been some sort of buffering Siera Madre for peninsular Bikol, Dios Mabalos, Catanduanes. As you know, this book launch was postponed for one week due to the need to recover here after typhoon Uwan.

You know what, if I may digress a bit, the Bikolnon collective memory of typhoons should very well be the subject of another book from the region, with perhaps Albay Arts Foundation taking the lead. I can already imagine a possible book title – Hala Bagyo! Timely it would be in this time of a declared state of national calamity. A time of natural calamities aggravated by man-made calamities especially corrupted, substandard and ghost flood control projects. Sadly, a few prominent high officials and ex-officials from Bikol have tainted its name with this national scandal. [Kaya hilingan na si nakasurat sa shirt ko, kun mababasa nindo – “bicolano ako” na mas lataw an “ano ako” – kinaipuhan baliktadon an “ako bicol.”]

But the book we celebrate today speaks to another national scandal and man-made calamity that lasted more than 13 years from September 1972 to February 1986, the Marcos martial law dictatorship, as it was felt and as was fought against here in Bikol. MGA DASO takes its name from the native Bikol torch. Its stories hope to guide new generations through the darkness of martial law memory, “so that we do not walk backwards into a future of repeated violence.” Thirty-three voices from the six Bikol provinces, their testimonies (of life, loss, and resistance under the Marcos dictatorship) remind us: if we forget, the past merely changes clothes and walks among us again. So, listen now, hopefully read more later, and keep the torch of memory alive. All book-sale royalties will be donated to the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation which honors martial law martyrs and heroes. About 30 out of the 339 whose names are engraved in the Bantayog Wall of Remembrance are Bikolanos. Several of them, and a few more who should be added there, are featured in MGA DASO.

As printed, MGA DASO was dedicated by its three editors from Camarines Sur to three authors of our 1970s activist generation, Francia Clavecillas, Marne Kilates and Alberto David, all from Albay, who had earlier passed away, two of them while the book was still in the press. But four days after the book came off the UP Press last September, a fourth author, journalist-lawyer Henry Briguerra from Camarines Sur, passed away nearing age 80.

Such post-article submission deaths of several authors only underscore the importance of recording, documenting, and writing up the testimonies of those who lived and fought during those dangerous years of the Marcos dictatorship before they – like old soldiers – fade away. There were those physically and mentally handicapped to tell their stories due to old age and poor health. It was particularly hard getting the stories of a number who suffered lingering trauma, the effects of physical and psychological torture during martial law or ML. Some chose to forget, but others chose to remember. We co-editors apologized to them for dredging up dreadful and painful memories. Many still live in constant fear of the military in the light of activists still being arrested, disappeared and “salvaged” up to now.

But those who told us their stories were more or less motivated this way: We have to make this effort now, even if late in the day or the night, with more reason when memories of names and events of four to five decades ago are fading and before they are lost forever, an effort we owe ourselves and posterity. A renowned foreign author once famously said “The struggle of [people] against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” One author told us that even his children and closest friends had not heard his story before, and it was the first time he actually sat down to write it. Now you who read the book will be privy to his previously untold story. Another author thanked us for practically “forcing” her to do this before she forgets these very important parts of her past. The act of writing can serve not only as a memory keeper but also as a form of catharsis and closure in the twilight of our lives. Their stories are a rich wellspring not only for history but also for cognate academic disciplines, notably psychology, both personal and social, including trauma studies. Truth to tell, a number of pieces read more like literature (but not fiction) than journalism or history.

Speaking of history, MGA DASO: Stories of Martial Law in Bikol acknowledges the inspiring models provided by earlier books of stories of ML in Cebu and in Davao. We believe in the regional approach and basis for a fairer and more comprehensive national history, whether this be of martial law, of the revolutionary movement, or of the whole Philippine history. We believe in doing more history from below, to complement the of course still important, if not indispensable, history from above. There must be a more conscious effort to redress the absence of small voices from the margins in the grand narratives of history writing, lest their stories be forever shut out. For “they too have their story.”

At this point, it must be acknowledged that the national-democratic narrative has often dominated the critical discourse on ML and the Marcos dictatorship. But like the books of stories of ML in Cebu and Davao, MGA DASO is not a nat-dem project that would present only or mainly the nat-dem view on ML. For that critical discourse, our book decidedly contributes an independent perspective that is not aligned with any political or ideological persuasion and line. Still, our book provides space for the nat-dem perspective, including the role of the NPA in Bikol. A big, if not overwhelming, majority of our book’s authors and subject persons were at least nat-dem activists in the 1970s (dekada sitenta) aside from a number of them being in their 70s (edad sitenta). As nat-dem activists, their anti-dictatorship stance was, for the most part, consciously part of their adopted “struggle for national democracy” that was nothing less than a national democratic revolution led by the CPP-NPA.

Yes, some of them, especially those killed during ML, were CPP cadres or NPA commanders or Red fighters. Some articles in our book state this explicitly, others do not, but the same can be gleaned from context or reading between the lines. For some of these persons, their joining the armed struggle led by the CPP-NPA was largely due to its then being the most organized and effective resistance (aside from the Moro armed resistance) to the military repression that enforced the Marcos dictatorship. At the same time, there are a few articles in MGA DASO that contain critical accounts or remarks about the CPP-NPA. But whatever one might think of the CPP-NPA, there is some historical credit due it for its said resistance role, as there should be historical recognition for those fought the dictatorship in various ways, armed and unarmed, legal and illegal – whether or not as nat-dem activists or as communist revolutionaries. All these are matters of historical honesty, accuracy and justice.

We editors are quite proud of our contributing authors, some of whom were or are ordinary non-activist folk. When we asked for their bio-notes, most of these typically humble Bikolnon gave only one-liners like “teacher and a freedom fighter,” a “doctor to the barrios,” or a “journalist and educator.” We therefore did research on their achievements and awards, and saw how they, and the family members and friends they paid homage to, excelled in their occupations, but more important than that, continued to serve the people and the country in their chosen fields. In showcasing the caliber of these individuals in the last part bio-notes, we hope that our readers, especially of today’s younger generations, can ponder why they, along with thousands of others, did what they did at such great cost, and think of what can still be done for our people and country. In this way, we somehow hope to pass the torch represented by our book MGA DASO.

If by this time you are not yet convinced to buy MGA DASO and bring home a piece of this living memory of martial law in Bikol, wait till you listen to the five authors (or their representatives) who will read excerpts from their contributed articles. Our launch copies for sale are offered at a 20% discounted price of P560, down from the regular price of P700. Opposite of what is happening with gasoline prices. [Yaon sa likod an book sale.] Dios Mabalos saindong gabos. Viva si garo mga daso saindo!