Indonesia Conference Directory

Human Rights Violations is one great dilemma which concerns every country. This phenomenon is cohered with the tyranny and incompetence of the government resulting to a society filled with atrocities. The case of Marawi City during Martial Law under Marcos regime in the Philippines is a microcosm of the greater picture of the violation of these rights which this study would like to unfold. In presenting the scope of this study, four objectives are outlined as follows, to explore the untold stories of Meranaw in Marawi city during Martial law, to examine and investigate the social condition of Marawi on how the people struggled within the martial rule, to discuss how the people of Marawi respond to the military aggression and human rights violations in Marawi city and, to know how the Meranaws look at Martial Law at present. The study is primarily conducted based on oral interviews and archival methods. Key informants who are eye witnesses and those other respondents that corroborated or give additional information for the fulfilment and development of this study were purposively chosen. Results of the study show that before Martial law, there was a mutual harmony in Marawi city among the Meranaw natives, the Bisayas and the Chinese settlers in Marawi. The deployment of Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Constabulary brought the community in a chaotic environment where abuses and injustices were experienced primarily by the Meranaws. To counter these aggressions, the people respond in a collective way of rebellion, some vacated Marawi, some evacuated while others chose to remain. Nevertheless, people of Marawi implied that the purpose of Martial law was not established but rather, it cause disarray, wide corruption and intensified rebellion that trigger large scale of problems that shaped the Mindanao problem.