Turning rage into courage: Mindanao under martial law

Edited by Carolyn O. Arguillas. Davao City: Mindanao News and Information Cooperative. 296 pages.

Turning Rage into Courage: Mindanao under Martial Law is a collection of essays and narratives, documents and articles, songs and poems written by Mindanawons. The authors come from all walks of life. There are priests, nuns, journalists, activists, government employees, and researchers. Students, human rights and non-government organization (NGO) workers, professionals, and victims of violence also took part in the completion of the book. Island Garden City of Samal Mayor Roger Antalan, singer-composer Joey Ayala, Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar, former Task Force Detainees volunteers H. Marcos C. Mordeño and Amalia Bandiola-Cabusao, and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel also contributed.

Mordeño narrates his boyhood experiences during Martial Law, such as witnessing the abuses of the military and how such experiences influenced his life.

Salah Jubair recounts how Martial Law encouraged him to join the Moro National Liberation Front and fight for the rights of his people.

Leonides Ilagan essays the perspective of a 4-year-old into his father’s arrest and detention in 1985.
The common denominator that these authors have is that they are Mindanao-born or raised, and Martial Law had touched their lives. The publisher’s note says, “This book does not tell the complete story of those years in Mindanao. It only gives the readers glimpses of how life was then as remembered by the authors here. More importantly, this book shows the readers the values of taking a stand, of self-sacrifice, of raging ‘against the dying of the light,’ of turning rage into courage.”

In 1972, the Philippines was already experiencing political instability. The Muslim Filipinos and the Armed Forces of the Philippines were at war with each other, foreign interests dominated our economy, and corruption was ubiquitous in the government. Then, Marcos declared Martial Law and a regime of oppression and suppression pervaded the land.

Though the military did not rule the country, their power over civilians was nevertheless obvious. They had influence in business and politics, the media, public utilities, and other aspects of public life. They were granted authority to search, arrest, and detain civilians. Between 1972 and 1977, 60,000 people were arrested, with at least 2,000 of these detained without trial. As many as 303 cases of salvaging and 233 disappearances were recorded from 1975 to 1980. With the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the right to legal counsel and due process of law was removed.

Turning Rage into Courage: Mindanao under Martial Law was put together in 2002, thirty years after former President Marcos issued Proclamation 1081 that put the country under military rule. Thirty years after its pronouncement, feelings of victimhood, fear, distress, trauma, anger, and pain persisted.

Thirty years after, why this exercise? Why this memento of heart-wrenching events? Why relive the pain that Martial Law brought to the lives of many? Moreover, why produce a book that is a testament only to Mindanawons who fought, suffered and died for our freedom? Yes, the most number of human rights violations under Martial Law took place in Mindanao, but Martial Law affected the lives of every Filipino during the Marcos regime. What about honoring the rest? In his essay, H. Marcos C. Mordeño alludes to the power of memory by posing the following questions: “…Should we who witnessed the nation’s plunder and the maiming and killing of innocents just allow the ugly past to fade completely from our collective consciousness? Can a nation heal the trauma of the past by forgetting the past itself –if that’s possible – and move on toward ‘reconciliation’?” (158).

Martial Law injured human dignity which eroded the people’s ability to fight against the limits that repression set in their lives and to their freedom. Could it be that the need for group identity is the reason for putting together a book remembering the Mindanawons who suffered under Martial Law?
Identity groups have “chosen traumas” -- in this case, Martial Law -- which serves to connect people together. Identifying the traumas brought about by Martial Law is critical because, as may be in this case, the group has never properly mourned its losses or healed from its experiences. The theory of group identity and victimhood asserts that in order to move beyond feelings of victimhood and rage, the group needs to properly mourn these past traumas.

Acknowledging oneself as a victim is the first step towards recovery. When an individual learns that others, like him or her have suffered through the same ordeal, s/he regains self-esteem. When this process takes place, victimization can then be made into something much more constructive, like courage. Putting this book together could have been a mode for which the group can go through a process of mourning and eventually empowerment. Malou Tiangco writes in her memoirs, “…no amount of ammunition can stop the people from fighting and changing any oppressive condition. The growing allies of the oppressed are continually learning and applying the choice on the kind of life and death they opt for” (78).

The publisher’s note mentions that “some are still suffering from the trauma of detention, torture, solitary confinement, of seeing former tormentors -- those state-sponsored terrorists who were not made to pay for what they did.” This statement emphasizes the need to receive acknowledgment from the community of their suffering. Vamik Volkan, a political psychologist, says that for healing to take place, it is important that these “tormentors” acknowledge the role they played in creating these ordeals.

Sometimes, as in the case of the Jewish experience of the holocaust, groups elevate the self-righteousness of victimhood by strongly identifying themselves with the group’s chosen trauma, allowing their history to be their identity marker. It is debatable whether this book (or its following volumes) is intended to continually remind the rest of the fact that the most number of human rights violations took place in Mindanao. But it does demonstrate the refusal of the authors to be helpless victims ever again.

In cases like these, the fear of becoming a victim anew is great. Ivan Kos, a New York private practitioner who studies fear and fear reduction, explains that “if someone or something hurts or has hurt you before, you have a reason to fear it in the future.” A very common fear is the fear of losing one’s identity and/or security. Threats to a group’s identity arouse fears such as the fear of oppression, of extinction, and of the future.

When experiences of oppression, victimhood, persecution, and bigotry exist in history, there is a great chance that it may lead to a fear of parallel transgression. This is evident in the publisher’s note. In July of 2002, when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo proclaimed the formation of a “Strong Republic” in her State of the Nation Address, feelings of a “New Society” déjà vu were prompted thus creating the push for putting this book together. History plays a significant role in the development of fear. Memories of past injustices lead individuals or groups to anticipate future oppression or violence.

In the introduction, it says, “This is a book about taking a stand, about sacrificing personal dreams, and even lives, for causes larger than one’s own.” This is probably what James Mattil, the managing editor of Flashpoints: Guide to World Conflict, meant when he said, “...whenever we ask why people hate, or why they are willing to kill or die for a cause, the answer is invariably fear.” Almost always, when we talk of “killing or dying for a cause,” we conjure up thoughts of nationalism, heroism, patriotism, and courage – all of which shouldn’t be thrust aside. But we forget that strong enigmatic force that is overcome by courage but nevertheless motivates us: fear.

Whenever a group is threatened, it fears for its survival and attempts to get rid of the threat. Historical experiences shape how groups view threats. If a group has been wounded in the past, their outlook on life changes. This can be illustrated in the way the Israelites and Palestinians see each other today.

Human beings are strongly dependent on social support for a sense of safety, meaning, and control, which is why the need for group identity is much stronger after the passing of time. Many of those who were activists during the Martial Law period have died or have become reticent. Some have given up their ideals and have opted for simpler lives. Many have stopped caring and many have repressed the memories of their experiences.

While going through the book, I noticed the dedication reads “For the children of Mindanao, today & tomorrow.” Studies have found that a sense of victimization actually gets passed on from one generation to the next, regardless of whether or not a person has experienced any trauma himself. These traumas become the chosen traumas of the group, leading us back to the factors that form the generational group identity.

The theory of group identity and victimhood follows the suggestion of repetition compulsion. Repetition compulsion is the desire to relive traumatic events through storytelling as a way of dealing and coming to terms with that trauma. Sigmund Freud suggested that the aim of repetition compulsion is to gain mastery over dealing with an individual’s experience of trauma.

The publication of this book is a vital ingredient for the unification of the peoples of Mindanao. It leads us to the identification, acknowledgment, and appreciation of those who have suffered through the Martial Law years. Despite the authors’ diversity, the book highlights their commonalities that help them develop a Mindanawon identity.

Corinne A. Cajelo graduated from the Ateneo de Davao University with a degree in AB Psychology in March 2005.