Martial Law And Religion

Abstract

The Martial Law years as among the darkest in our history, accounting still for most of the ills that we continue to suffertoday. That darkness explains the immediate and spontaneous response of the people who poured into EDSA on those four glorious days of September in 1986. It is no accident that the EDSA Revolution was saturated, among others, with religious motifs. It was a cleric, the much loved Cardinal Sin, who used the lone Catholic radio station to call for the people to congregate at the great highway, and a sea of humanity then made history as they flooded the long street not with guns but with roses and rosaries, a bloodless revolution indeed that filled the air with patriotic songs and prayers, a virtual potluck picnic for all members of the family, which included priests and nuns and seminarians in their recognizable garbs, a true People Power Revolution which is simultaneously a religious event. Thus, the revolution became a fight between good and evil, where Religion stood as the polar opposite of Martial Law. References Alatas, Syed Hussein. Corruption and the Destiny of Asia. Kuala Lumpur: Prentice-Hall Sdn-Bhd, 1999. Benigno, Teodoro. Ninoy Aquino: Portrait of a Hero. Makati: Benigno S. AquinoJr. Foundation, 1993. Bonner, Raymond. Waltzing with a Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making ofAmerican Policy. Manila: Time Books, 1987. Burton, Sandra. Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the UnfinishedRevolution. New York: Werner Books, 1989. Byington, Kaa. Bantay ng Bayan: Stories from the NAMFREL Crusade 1984-1986.Manila: Bookmark, 1988. Celoza, Alberto. Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines: The Political Economy ofAuthoritarianism. Singapore: Toppan Company, 1998. Diokno, Jose W. A Nation for our Children: Selected Writings. Pricila Manalang,ed. Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 1987. Hamilton, Edith and Huntington Cairns, eds. Collected Dialogues of Plato. NewJersey: Princeton University Press, 1973. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. Philosophy of Right. Trans. T.M. Knox. London:oxford University Press, 1967. Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. H.J. Paton, tr. London:Hutchinson University Library, 1966. Macchiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince and Other Works. Allan Gilbert, tr. USA: HenricksHouse, 1964. Mercado, Monina Allarey, ed. People Power: The Philippine Revolution of 1986,An Eyewitness History. Manila: The James B. Reuter, SJ Foundation, 1986. Moyer, et. al., eds. Bayan Ko!: Images of Philippine Revolt. Hong Kong: Project 28Days, 1986. Nietszche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Walter Kaufmann, tr. New York:Vintage Random, 1966. _______________. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. R.J. Hollingdale, tr. London: Penguin, 1966. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract. Lester Crocker, ed. New York:Washington Square Press, 1967. Seagrave, Sterling. The Marcos Dynasty. New York: Harper and Row, 1988. Thomas Aquinas, St. Summa Theologiae. Fathers of the English Dominican Province,tr. Maryland: Christian Classics, 1981. Wing-Tsit Chan, tr. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. New Jersey: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1973.