Then President Ferdinand Marcos y Edralin was superstitious, as a person, leader and politician. That is why he chose to have his Declaration of Martial Law identified with the date, September 21, 1972, a Thursday. However, the actual implementation of Martial Law had to be done after office hours on a Friday, September 22, 1972.
The Congress of the Philippines was still in session. Friday was both a school day and a working day. Employees, students and workers would be out in the schools, streets and places of work the whole day until five, six or seven o’clock in the afternoon and/or evening.
By implementing Martial Law after office hours on Friday, he would catch the vast majority of employees, students and workers on the way home or to their provinces. They would stay at home or out of town for the whole weekend.
Marcos could no longer wait until September 21, 1973, a Friday, to declare Martial Law. By then, he would be disqualified by the 1935 (amended in 1940) Constitution, from running for a third four - year term. He would have had to choose his/the Nacionalista Party’s Presidential Candidate for the November 1973 Elections. If his First Lady, Imelda Romualdez Marcos was the official Presidential Candidate, the Opposition Liberal Party would have been handed a very potent issue. The Campaign would be in full swing with many candidates for President, Vice President, eight Senatorial seats and a Hundred Congressional/Representatives’ seats. His second and last four - year term as President would end on December 30, 1973.
The National Budget for the following Fiscal Year (October 1972 to October 1973) was still awaiting passage by the Senate. The House of Representatives had passed its version weeks before. The two Houses of Congress would be on recess over the weekend. There were no Television News Programs in the mornings then. There were less Tri Media News Teams and reporters as well as Desk men and Editors on duty during the weekends.
The radical leftist umbrella organization, Movement for a Democratic Philippines, had just held a big rally at Plaza Miranda a day or two before. A long series of government perpetuated bombings had culminated a week before at the new venue of the 1971 Constitutional Convention – the top floor of the Quezon City Hall Building at the Quezon Memorial/Elliptical Circle in QC. The Constitutional Convention had left its original venue, the Manila Hotel, about a month before, ostensibly in order to save money.
I also suspect that the venue was changed in preparation for the ramming through of issues and provisions that were immensely unpopular with the Delegates, the Mass Media, the Opposition, and the Activist and Student Movement, both Moderate and Radical. The Manila Hotel is near Malacañang Palace and the University Belt. The QC City Hall was then in the relatively less populated part of Metro Manila. The student population of the Katipunan Belt was much less than the U Belt in Sampaloc, Manila. In case of dispersals and riots, QC was a safer and wider space and more police friendly than Manila.
The leader of the Third Force (Progressive Party of the Philippines with Presidential, Vice Presidential and Senatorial Candidates in 1957 and as the Party for Philippine Progress in 1965 and as the Grand Alliance with Senatorial Candidates in 1959 and in coalition with the Liberal Party in 1961 with LP candidate Vice President Diosdado Macapagal for President and Senator and Grand Alliance candidate Emmanuel Pelaez for Vice President and Manglapus and Manahan for Senator [They won as number 1 and 2 top Candidates] ) in Philippine Politics, Senator (1961 – 1967) and 1971 Concon Delegate Raul S. Manglapus, was scheduled to leave for abroad. My maternal uncle, former Magsaysay Administration Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Secretary and Atty. Salvador Araneta y Zaragoza, a Delegate of both the 1935 and 1971 Constitutional Conventions, was also scheduled to leave for the USA.
After we talk about the night and day of the start of the actual implementation of Martial Law, Friday, September 22 and Saturday, the 23rd, we will backtrack to the years before Martial Law – my resignation as Chairman of Moderate KASAPI in September, my first meeting with Senator Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino in August 1972, the November 1971 Local/Mid Elections, the Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in August 1971, the Plaza Miranda Bombing on Saturday 1971, the Wednesday, January 13, 1971, most successful Transport Strike in the Philippines, the morning Moderate and afternoon Radical Protest Rallies, our(Sixto Carlos, Christine Ebro and Linggoy) being chased and shot by the Philippine Constabulary (PC) Metropolitan Command (METROCOM) Police Intelligence Service (MPIS), my Election as the Chairman of Moderate KASAPI in August 1970, the evacuation in the summer vacation of 1970 of the refugees from the burning of Sitio Ora Este, Barangay Ora, Municipality of Bantay, Province of Ilocos Sur on May 22, 1969,the First Quarter Storm including the Battle of Mendiola on Friday, January 30, 1970 and the Monday, January 26, 1970 NUSP Rally for a Non Partisan Constitutional Convention. My dropping out of 4th/Senior Year College in December 1969,the November 1969 National Elections, helping my Ateneo de Manila High School Honors Section Class of 1966 Valedictorian and classmate Edgar “EDJOP” Jopson in NUSP, four years of political education, recruitment, seminars in Loyola Heights and the University Belt, my recruitment during the 1966 Summer Semester after my graduation from Ateneo High School, my involvement in the 1965 and 1961 Presidential Elections, 1959 Local/Mid Elections, 1957 and 1953 Presidential Elections.
(To be continued)
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