Historians have observed Filipinos to be too forgiving and too forgetful. Perhaps this is the reason why the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation has put up the Bantayog Museum to remind Filipinos who stood witness to the horrors of martial law of its bitterness and to educate the generation who were not yet born at that time about its lessons.
Carolina Malay points out that the museum’s objective is to help our youth remember one of the darkest moments of our past and make sure it doesn’t happen again. It is not their fault if they don’t have memories of martial law. It’s up to us, their parents, to show them something about martial law and impart lessons to them. For Conrado de Quiros, it’s nice to have a reminder, if you can remember what they mean or where they are.
Bantayog Museum is located at the second floor of Senator Jovito R. Salonga Building within the Bantayog Memorial Center. The last time I was there was my first, so I didn’t know what to expect.
My knowledge about martial law is based on written materials that are available today and some stories related to me by my parents. I remember a story told to me by my mother about an uncle who managed to escape mass arrest and avoided torture from the military, who was ordered to crush protest-rallies against the authoritarian regime. Looking at the exhibits at the Bantayog Museum made me realize that not everyone is as lucky as my uncle.
Ascending the stairs from the lobby, I was led to the main museum gallery. First thing that greeted me upon the entering the museum hall, was an enlarged picture of President Ferdinand Marcos with the first family during 1965 oath taking ceremonies. Surrounding the enlarged picture are images that suggest poverty, torture and violence inflicted on anti-Marcos protesters, and one that explains why Marcos and Hitler are alike.
At one corner stands a life-size cut out of the eloquent opposition leader Jose Diokno speaking before a mammoth crowd during a 1971 rally at Plaza Miranda, which ended in tragedy after two-nad granades were tossed on stage.
An interesting exhibit is a replica of a prison cell where activist Father Jerry Aquino was detained for a year initially at the Philippine Constabulary stockade in Bontoc, Mountain Province and later at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig for speaking up against the Marcos regime. The prison cell was cramped and filthy with a small bunk bed and toilet bowl.
Pass the cell, displayed on the walls are a series of collage that show artworks, posters, enlarged photos and other memorabilia relating anti-Marcos protests and rallies.
The tour culminates with the exhibit depicting the triumphal 1986 EDSA Revolution which toppled the 20-year dictatorship rule with the image of Our Lady of Fatima sitting atop a replica of a military tank set against the backdrop of mass protesters of common people and the religious.
From the museum halls I went outside the second floor balcony to the other exhibit hall called the Hall of Remembrance.
This is a second part of a series on Bantayog ng mga Bayani.
Click here for part one of this series.
It’s so unfair that we are proud to live in a free country but some people are just souless just to do these things to fellow Filipinos.
marcos & hitler are never alike… please read history.