Press Statement on Martial Law Compensation Act

TODAY, the President signs into law, the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013. Twenty-seven years after the EDSA People Power Revolution, our statute books now recognize and extend reparation to the victims of the Martial Law: those who, in the quest for freedom, were killed, tortured, abducted, and unjustly harmed.

As one of the co-authors of this law, I personally see this law as a recognition of the heroism that was widespread during the Martial Law: a heroism that rang across hills and blazed through the streets of this country.

The law mandates the creation of the Human Rights Violations Victims Memorial Commission, which will work with the Department of Education and Commission on Higher Education, to ensure that the struggles of Martial Law are taught in our schools and recorded in places that are open to the public.

It is only when we remember the atrocities, the injustice, and the abuses that went on in our past that we, as a nation, can continue to fight against attempts to resurrect these evils. Our memory of Martial Law, kept alive and strong, will ensure that we will never have to suffer the same fate ever again.

Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the EDSA revolution by remembering the victims who must stand in our history as the heroes of a revolution.