Thousands of leftist activists, human rights advocates and former political detainees took to the streets in the Philippines yesterday to denounce continuing rights abuses as they marked the declaration of martial law 40 years ago. The demonstrators said that arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, disappearance and extrajudicial killings were still happening in the Philippines, while the family of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was back in positions of power. “It may not be as visible as it was 40 years ago, but human rights violations that are indelible marks of Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law continue to this day,” human right group Karapatan said in a statement. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law for nine years from September 21, 1972. Thousands of Filipinos, mostly accused of being enemies of the state, were arrested, tortured, killed and disappeared. President Benigno Aquino III, whose father was among those detained and then exiled during martial law, said he hoped that the sacrifices of those who suffered under the Marcos regime would be an inspiration for Filipinos to work for a better future. “I am confident that in unity, we will all be witnesses to the widespread and meaningful change that the next generation will inherit from us,” he said during the inauguration of a memorial centre at an army camp where his father was among those detained. “In this place, the dictatorship tried to totally erase their principles and crush their spirit,” he added. “They stripped them of their things and clothes. They took away even my father’s eyeglasses, his watch and even his wedding ring.” The elder Aquino was assassinated in August 1983 on returning from exile in the US. His death galvanised the opposition that eventually led to the 1986 people power revolt that ousted Marcos. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii three years later. His wife, Imelda, and their three children returned to the Philippines in 1991 and now hold various elected positions in Congress and provincial government. DPA