Throughout the Martial Law period, President Ferdinand E. Marcos had put a lot of effort into building up the cult of September 21, having somehow fallen in love with the date. It was the date that he put on Proclamation No. 1081 in 1972, placing the Philippines under Martial Law. It was also proclaimed as a National Thanksgiving Day, by virtue of Proclamation No. 1180 in 1973, to memorialize the date as the foundation day of his so-called New Society.
The propaganda effort around September 21 was so successful that up to the present, many Filipinos still believe that martial law was proclaimed on September 21, 1972 when its actual anniversary is on September 23.
On September 21, 1972, democracy was still functioning in the Philippines. Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was still able to deliver a privilege speech, one that would be his final one, at the House of Representatives and the Senate, with committee meetings scheduled for that night.
That afternoon a protest march in Plaza Miranda was sponsored by the Concerned Christians for Civil Liberties, attended by a crowd of 30,000, that received coverage from newspapers, radio, and television.
On September 22, 1972, newspapers still came out, featuring the rally at Plaza Miranda. It was at that evening that the convoy of Secretary of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile was ambushed in Wack-Wack, setting the stage for martial law. Enrile would later reveal in 1986 that the ambush was staged.
Marcos appeared on television at 7:15pm on September 23, 1972 to announced that he had placed the “entire Philippines under Martial Law” as of 9pm on Sept 22, via a proclamation which he claimed to sign on the 21st.
Historical accounts indicate that Marcos’ obsession with numerology, particularly the number 7, necessitated that the declaration of Martial Law be official signed on a date divisible by 7. Thus, September 21, 1972 became the official date that Martial Law was established and the day that the Marcos dictatorship began, allowing Marcos to control history on his own terms.
Today, September 23, we remember the actual date that Martial Law was declared and how a dictator’s reign began with disinformation. Let us also look back and remember the human rights abuses and the plunder of the nation’s coffers that Martial Law enabled in order to make sure Filipino leaders don’t get to exploit the same loophole again, and at the same time remind ourselves to continue watching out for attempts at disinformation that could control perceptions or revise history.*
