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Martial Law in Cebu
Martial Law in Cebu: Stories of Life and Struggle during the Marcos Dictatorship is a collection crafted by numerous contributors who were firsthand witnessed. The book features stories of hope and despair, of awakening and struggle, and of remembering. This collection is a call to remember who we are, what we have gone through, and what we stand for as a nation. But more than that, it is a call to learn from these remembrances and share them with as many fellow Filipinos as we can. It is a call to resist distortion and erasure. It is a call to tell our own stories of the past, and to write our own story moving forward—the story, we hope, of a more just and humane future for our nation, and for all Filipinos.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
246 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
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December 13, 2023
Martial Law in Cebu is selection of stories from Cebuano residents who have experienced the horrors of Martial Law, and while it has some rather unfortunate flaws, I do believe that for the most part, it does a fair bit to achieve its goals.
Is this an account about the most egregious abuses of power and violations of human rights? I wouldn't say so. While some of these stories truly are harrowing, some are also simply about the daily struggles of some activists doing arguably important but nonetheless none-too-militant work without necessarily being the ones bearing the brunt of the heinous offences of the Marcos regime (Marcos Senior. dear god if it isn't depressing that I have to specify that now).
So in the end, it succeeds more as a cross-sectional view of the activism that occurred during that time – from the dyed in the wool communist armed resistance to the humble student journalist and artist doing her part. All over the book, the main and constant throughline message ties it nicely together: be vigilant of your liberties, don't let this happen again, now it's up to you, the new generation.
But then, there's all the negatives. The most glaring one was the lack of editing of this volume. This was self-published by the "editor" of this book and was not overseen by a publishing house, and the lack of guidance shows. A professional book editor would have been able to rein in and give direction to each story contributor, but without one, there were lapses in curation, in structure, in omission of key details, and even basic proofreading.
On a more general note, although I understand that Cebu is in many ways still a relatively small, insular community, one still gets the sense that many of the selection of contributors here were included because they were part of a close group of professional connections, and not necessarily picked to give a more comprehensive picture of the time.
In any case, regardless of its faults, I still found it a worthwhile read, although I heavily annotated my own copy of this book.
Is this an account about the most egregious abuses of power and violations of human rights? I wouldn't say so. While some of these stories truly are harrowing, some are also simply about the daily struggles of some activists doing arguably important but nonetheless none-too-militant work without necessarily being the ones bearing the brunt of the heinous offences of the Marcos regime (Marcos Senior. dear god if it isn't depressing that I have to specify that now).
So in the end, it succeeds more as a cross-sectional view of the activism that occurred during that time – from the dyed in the wool communist armed resistance to the humble student journalist and artist doing her part. All over the book, the main and constant throughline message ties it nicely together: be vigilant of your liberties, don't let this happen again, now it's up to you, the new generation.
But then, there's all the negatives. The most glaring one was the lack of editing of this volume. This was self-published by the "editor" of this book and was not overseen by a publishing house, and the lack of guidance shows. A professional book editor would have been able to rein in and give direction to each story contributor, but without one, there were lapses in curation, in structure, in omission of key details, and even basic proofreading.
On a more general note, although I understand that Cebu is in many ways still a relatively small, insular community, one still gets the sense that many of the selection of contributors here were included because they were part of a close group of professional connections, and not necessarily picked to give a more comprehensive picture of the time.
In any case, regardless of its faults, I still found it a worthwhile read, although I heavily annotated my own copy of this book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review