THE SIGNIFICANCE OF APRIL 6th IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY Today, April 6th, we commemorate a significant yet half-forgotten milestone in our history. Thirty four years ago, or on the eve of the April 7, 1978 elections of the Interim Batasang Pambansa, the rubber stamp legislature dictator Ferdinand Marcos created under the 1973 Constitution, the Filipino people rose as one to voice their protest against the dictator. Marcos and his minions did not expect the overall capacity of the Filipino people to voice out their displeasure over the rising militarization and abuses associated with his one-man rule. Buoyed by the appearance of detained Benigno Aquino Jr. on government television three nights before, the Filipino people spoke by engaging in the most successful noise barrage in history. At exactly 7 pm, Filipinos from all walks of life collectively rose against martial in one-night display of anger and protest. The noise barrage was intended to last for only an hour, but it extended until past midnight. Filipinos honked their cars, created noise out of empty tin cans, struck their metal gates, and shouted anti-Marcos slogans on top of their voices. The Armed Forces and Integrated National Police could not contain the people’s anger and did not do anything except to make inconsequential arrests and empty threats. The noise barrage emanated from the call of Marcos to hold the first parliamentary elections under martial rule. The dictator adroitly called it in late February, 1978 and set it on April 7, 1977. Marcos did not want to give the divided opposition any chance to unite and defeat his selected candidates. With a month of political campaign, Marcos felt his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, or KBL, could win the polls hands down. That was how clever he was as during those days. He always outsmarted his opponents by not giving them any chances. It was all me first. At that point, the political opposition was severely fragmented by their conflicting stands on the parliamentary polls. A faction led by Senators Gerry Roxas, the father of Mar Roxas and son of the late President Manuel Roxas, and Jovito Salonga did not want the democratic opposition to participate because Marcos would certainly rig the election results to project support for his martial law regime. By boycotting the coming polls, the pro-boycott faction believed Marcos would become a laughing stock before the eyes of the world. “Let him do his own shadow-boxing,” Salonga was quoted as saying. But a faction led by Senator Lorenzo Tanada believed that the opposition should participate to expose Marcos and his one-man rule. They argued that the parliamentary polls would be a perfect forum to bring the issues of dictatorship before the Filipino people. Like the pro-boycott faction, the pro-participation faction believed that Marcos was an illegal president, who occupied the presidency despite the lapse of his term of office in 1973. The political impasse between the two factions was only broken when the pro-boycott faction finally agreed to allow the pro-participation faction to field a lineup of candidates to contest the KBL lineup in Metro Manila. Hence, the Lakas ng Bayan, or Laban, was born with no less than Tanada as its figure head. At that time, the parliementary elections were on regional basis. Hence, every political party would have a set of candidates for every region. The country then had 13 regions, including Metro Manila. Hence, every member of the Interim Batasang Pambansa would represent a region, not a province of a district. This was Marcos way of assuring he would control the elections and marginalize further the political opposition. Besides, the Comelec, under the chairmanship of Leonardo Perez, a notorious Marcos lackey, had adopted block voting for the 1978 parliamentary elections. Voters simply wrote KBL on their ballots and their votes were counted for all KBL candidates. The Comelec rules were heavily stuck to favor the candidates of the Marcos dictatorship. Benigno Aquino Jr., father of President Noynoy Aquino, led the Laban lineup. At that time, Laban had secured a tactical alliance with the underground left, leading to the creation of a line-up that included two left-wing activists in Alex Boncayao and Trining Herrera, both are now dead. It also had allied with the so-called “social democrats,” or “soc-dems.” The Laban included the likes of Ernie Maceda, Fely Cabigao, Chito Lucero, Ernie Rondon, and several others. The KBL, largely on the basis of the decision of Marcos, fielded first lady Imelda Marcos and a mishmash of virtual unknowns like Johnny Soler, Jolly Benitez, Pablo Floro, and other forgettable names. Except for former senator Eddie Ilarde, the former Liberal party stalwart, who transferred to KBL in a display of political opportunism, the KBL lineup was so weak that the political opposition could easily massacre it in fair and honest elections. The political campaign became acrimonious as the political opposition charged Marcos of railroading it by not giving the Laban candidates any chance to explain their side before the people. Finally, Marcos allowed Ninoy Aquino to be interviewed by a panel of journalists in the government television station. It backfired as it crystallized public sympathy for the articulate Ninoy, who waxed eloquent lines to protest his incarceration at Fort Bonifacio. Hence, the Laban planned the April 6th noise barrage as the culmination of the political campaign. Since the crony press did not report anything of significance about the political opposition, its campaigners did everything humanly possible to disseminate the information about the panned unprecedented political activity. They did it by spreading the planned noise barrage through word of mouth or passing mimeographed copies of the announcement. The rest was history. On the night of April 6th, the world was shaken by the collective call of the Filipino people to protest martial rule. Even Marcos did not expect the people’s anger. As a knee jerk reaction, he and the Leonardo Perez-led Comelec cheated the Laban ticket. Not one among its candidates won. Even Ninoy Aquino lost to virtual unknowns. Marcos could have won the day but not without any future retribution. Although it took eight more years for the Filipino to rise and kick him out of power, the perception that Marcos was bound to stay in power and promote his on-man rule was firmed up by the April 6th noise barrage and the results of the one-sided April 7th parliamentary elections. Marcos never enjoyed the legitimacy, which he longed sought from various sectors including the political opposition. His political isolation from our people became more pronounced.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 05:12:18 +0000
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