Matial Law

Starting from the mid to late 60s before Martial Law was implemented, former president Ferdinand Marcos' administration already had a rocky beginning regarding labor welfare as an alarming amount of 62,000 Filipinos experienced at least one case of work-related conflicts which only staggered to an amount exceeding the millions by 1969. Due to these unsuitable circumstances, workers continued to remain idle and utilized their inactivity in their revolt against the current systems in the succeeding years. As an attempt to resolve this ongoing crisis, Martial Law was signed into law on September 21 and declared on September 23, 1972. On paper, it appears that the implementation of these protocols strengthened the economy as it significantly reduced work stoppages from a total of 157 to 69 and established a larger network of trade and transaction through unifying industries and registering them into a single trade union confederation, however, behind all these supposed developments are a series of infractions against upholding basic human rights, a piling amount of debt from foreign investors and an unemployment rate which reached 29 percent by the end of the period.

During this era, there were numerous amendments and adjustments on a constitutional level that further established a corrupt and violent regime made solely to benefit the powerful elite while those in the working class were left struggling to find stability and sustenance. The government took much more rigid and militant methods to combat the previous delinquencies of the labor force and ensure that they remain on their feet in a constant line of production to justify the extremities of their neglectful practices. Strikes were prohibited in important industries that subsidize human needs such as transportation, hospitals, schools, and those that fit the umbrella concept of those “producing and processing essential commodities for export”. This, then, turned into an outright ban of any form of revolt in November 1975 when the country was declared to be in a state of national emergency which, however, did not deter the Filipinos away from speaking their minds and fighting for justice and equality.