Malacañang mum on 51st anniversary of Martial Law declaration

Malacañang on Thursday had no plans to release any statement regarding the 51st anniversary of Martial Law, which was declared by former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the father of current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on 21 September 1972.

It is also noticeable that press briefer Daphne Oseña-Paez did not mention about Martial Law while conducting the press briefing with National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

When asked if the Palace would issue a statement, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) told reporters in a Viber message, "_Wala raw po_ (There is no statement)."

Data from Amnesty International showed that Martial Law led to the imprisonment of over 70,000 people, torture of 34,000 individuals, and the death of 3,200 others.

It's worth noting that Marcos Jr. questioned these statistics in January 2022, claiming that he had "no idea how they arrived at these statistics."

Amnesty International gathered this information after two missions to the Philippines in 1971 and 1981, with reports published in 1976 and 1982.

Meanwhile, the state-run Human Rights Violations Victims' Memorial Commission has acknowledged that 11,103 individuals experienced human rights violations during the era of martial law.

HRVVMC data showed that a combined total of 2,326 individuals either lost their lives or went missing between the years 1972 and 1986 as a result of these violations.

Issues of human rights violations are separate from ill-gotten wealth, which has been acknowledged as legal by the Supreme Court in 2003, 2012, and 2017.

The ill-gotten wealth is estimated to be between $5 billion to $10 billion after the Marcos family was ousted from the Palace through the EDSA People Power Revolution.