Philippine Martial Law

Martial law occurred at a bleak time in the history of the Philippines and in the career of President Ferdinand Marcos. The populace was apparently united in only one thing--the need for drastic action, and it appears that martial law was accepted calmly by the overwhelming majority of Filipinos. After one month of martial law, President Marcos seemed in control of a civilian government, with strong military presence, that was implementing a series of well-planned, detailed reforms, was cracking down on dissidents, and was as yet not brutal in everyday application. Why all this occurred is open to a number of different interpretations. Three are offered in the report.

During February 1986, a grassroots revolution overthrew the fourteen-year dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. In this book, Jose V. Fuentecilla describes how Filipino exiles and immigrants in the United States played a crucial role in this victory, acting as the overseas arm of the opposition to help return their country to democracy. A member of one of the major U.S.-based anti-Marcos movements, Fuentecilla tells the story of how small groups of Filipino exiles--short on resources and shunned by some of their compatriots--arrived and survived in the United States during the 1970s, overcame fear, apathy, and personal differences to form opposition organizations after Marcos's imposition of martial law, and learned to lobby the U.S. government during the Cold War. In the process, he draws from multiple hours of interviews with the principal activists, personal files of resistance leaders, and U.S. government records revealing the surveillance of the resistance by pro-Marcos White House administrations. The first full-length book to detail the history of U.S.-based opposition to the Marcos regime, Fighting from a Distance provides valuable lessons on how to persevere against a well-entrenched opponent.

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