“To Sing Our Own Song”
The second ad, also airing on ABS-CBN.
“Sana…”
We commemorate Jose “Ka Pepe” Diokno’s 90th birth anniversary with this short ad, now airing on ABS-CBN.
“To Sing Our Own Song” (1983)
This video is presented in four parts.
In 1983, Jose W. Diokno narrated this 50-minute documentary on the Marcos dictatorship. The program was produced by the BBC, and aired a critical view of the regime at a time when media and opposition in the Philippines were violently silenced.
Here, Sen. Diokno reveals government’s distorted view of development — one that prioritized patronage over the interests of its people. President Marcos, for example, spent 50% of the national health budget to build a state-of-the-art Heart Center in Manila, while around the country, Filipinos were dying of curable illnesses like TB, whooping cough, and dysentery.
Human rights abuses
The documentary also exposes the atrocities being committed by the regime. President Marcos fostered a military scared citizens into obedience. Ordinary people were arrested and tortured, and entire villages were massacred in broad daylight.
We meet an 8-year old girl named Marela. “[The military] began shooting us,” she says. “We fell down. My mother put her arm around me. Then, when everything was quiet, I stood up. My mother’s head was wounded… My little brother’s body was cut in half. I felt my head, it was all bloody — my mother’s brains were all over my hair.”
Another boy watched as soldiers murdered his father. He shares, “He was held… his head was turned sideways. Then it was cut off. They played with my father’s head. They pushed it with a stick and kicked it towards a coconut tree… I will avenge my father. Even a small chick can grow up into a fighting cock.”
The oppressiveness and ineptitude of the Marcos leadership drove many Filipinos to militancy. Sen. Diokno notes, “Martial law destroyed all our democratic institutions, so that people have no way of expressing what they feel and what they want. Protest has gone underground… where the Communist Party conducts seminars. [There], moderates like me can’t get into the debate… As always, violence breeds violence.”
Justice and freedom
Sen. Diokno believed that the system can instead be changed through moderate, peaceful means. He explains, ”No government can depend on force alone. If it continuously depends on force, then the day is going to come when that force is not going to be enough. So government tries to transform that force into law, so that it favors those who are in power. But in the same way, law can be used to fight that force. If law can be used to institutionalize social injustice and inequity… to marginalize people and throw them into poverty, then people can also use law to get out of that situation.”
So, Sen. Diokno founded the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), a nationwide network of lawyers dedicated to defending ordinary citizens and prosecuting those who abuse their power. FLAG continues to operate today, and it is the oldest and largest organization of human rights lawyers in the Philippines.
The documentary ends with a message of hope. Sen. Diokno, who always believed in the Filipino spirit, says, “It looks impossible for my people to get out of this trap. But we will. I know my people. Even if we have to wade through blood and fire, we will be free. We will develop. We will build our own societies. We will sing our own songs.”
