Thirty-five years since former President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1081 declaring Martial Law over the Philippines, it is much debated where the country has gone since then. While the administration is confident that the economy is booming and there is general peace and order, critics say that nothing has changed much. Government officials say that we are a far cry from the torments of the past. The opposition, however, claims that the military arrests, extrajudicial killings, corruption and even the legitimacy issue haunting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, cast doubt that the country has moved on from its past.

                                 An Undeclared Reincarnation
    “We note that in its desperation to cling to power, the Arroyo regime has resorted to the same policy of extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, harassment of critics and the intimidation of the free press. The Arroyo regime has unleashed several legal monstrosities, the latest of which is the draconian Anti-Terrorism Law known as the Human Securities Act,” the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), an alliance of various peoples’ and nongovernmental organizations, said in a statement.
    BAYAN Secretary-general Renato Reyes, Jr. said that the Arroyo couple (the President and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo who is currently being dragged into the broadband controversy involving the Chinese company ZTE and the local Amsterdam Holdings) seems to be the “reincarnation of the infamous ‘conjugal dictatorship’ of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. “It cannot be denied that recent developments have put the First Couple in the spotlight,” he said, adding that if before, the Marcoses were accused of rights abuses and plunder, the same accusations are now thrown to the incumbent and “the parallelisms are unmistakable as they are uncanny.”
     What’s On & Expat tried to reach Mrs. Marcos but she was unavailable for comment.
    Karapatan, a human rights group, has currently documented 886 victims of extrajudicial killings and 184 enforced disappearances since President Arroyo came to power in January 2001. “Never again should the scourge of martial law—or any of its reincarnations—be allowed to return to this land,” the organization said in a statement.
     “We have an undeclared martial law. Unjustices continue up to this day,” said Atty. Koko Pimental, former senatorial candidate and son of Sen. Nene Pimentel who was detained several times during the Martial Rule. “We are spinning around in circles. Our present leaders got distracted, some succumbed to the

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