Human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship

The dictatorship of 10th Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s is historically remembered for its record of human rights abuses,[1][2] particularly targeting political opponents, student activists,[3] journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against his dictatorship. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities,[4] historians believe that the Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings,[4] 35,000 documented tortures, 737 'disappeared',[4] and 70,000 incarcerations.[5][6]

Some 2,520 of the 3,257 murder victims were tortured and mutilated before their bodies were dumped in various places for the public to discover - a tactic meant to sow fear among the public,[5][7] which came to be known as "salvaging".[8] Some victims were also subjected to cannibalism.[9]

  1. ^ "Alfred McCoy, Dark Legacy: Human rights under the Marcos regime". Ateneo de Manila University. September 20, 1999.
  2. ^ Abinales, P.N.; Amoroso, Donna J. (2005). State and society in the Philippines. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0742510234. OCLC 57452454.
  3. ^ "Gone too soon: 7 youth leaders killed under Martial Law". Rappler. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c "3,257: Fact checking the Marcos killings, 1975-1985 - The Manila Times Online". www.manilatimes.net. April 12, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  5. ^ a b "Report of an AI Mission to the Republic of the Philippines 1975".
  6. ^ Robles, Raissa (2016). Marcos Martial Law: Never Again. Filipinos for a Better Philippines.
  7. ^ McCoy, Alfred W. (2009). Policing America's empire : the United States, the Philippines, and the rise of the surveillance state. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299234133. OCLC 550642875.
  8. ^ Cagurangan, Mar-Vic. "'Salvage' victims". The Guam Daily Post. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
  9. ^ Aguilar, Mila D. (October 3, 2015), So Why Samar?, Commission on Human Rights (Philippines), retrieved June 18, 2018