Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr.
Press Statement
August 23, 1971

SUBJECT: ON THE SUSPENSION OF HABEAS CORPUS

This is irony on top of tragedy.

We were bombed in Plaza Miranda. We were almost wiped out. And this is now the very reason being used by Mr. Marcos to gag us or put us in his stockades.

There is no rebellion. There is no invasion. There is really no imminent danger to the Republic that Mr. Marcos vowed five years ago to make great. What then is the real reason for the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus?

While the opposition is keenly interested in ferreting out the evil hands at Plaza Miranda, we hold this should not be used as an excuse to wage a countrywide arrest-and-jail-without-trial campaign against those who disagree with Mr. Marcos.

Of late, there have been two determined opposition to Mr. Marcos – – the Liberals and the student activists.

In a ploy that would do justice to Niccolo Machiavelli, Mr. Marcos would now want the nation to believe the so-called activists bombed us, the Liberals, at Plaza Miranda Saturday night.

The majority of the LP leadership are in the hospitals.

The leaders of the student activists are now in jail without benefit of bail or trial.

In one single maneuver, in one single blast, Mr. Marcos has felled his two most consistent critics, the Opposition Liberals and the student activists.

Suspension of the writ is the easiest solution and the most attractive escape for the overwhelming and unsolvable problems of Mr. Marcos has created for himself. With a single stroke of the pen, truth is now gagged and the critics cowed.

With the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, political debate is no longer possible. Our partisans in the barrios, in the towns, in the cities can be picked up by the Marcos forces and made to languish in the stockades indefinitely.

The Constitution says the writ may be suspended only “to prevent or suppress lawless violence, insurrection, or rebellion, or imminent danger thereof.”

Are our civil authorities now unable by ordinary processes to preserve order, punish offenders and compel obedience to the laws that, as Mr. Marcos did, the writ must be suspended?

We perceive a discernable consistent pattern in all this madness. We see a determined drive to instill fear in the hearts of every citizen. This is the politics of fear applied!

The Opposition is dismayed but undaunted.

Plaza Miranda, we must admit, has set us back in our campaign. It has grounded our entire Senate lineup.

But what Mr. Marcos did today is an even worse blow dealt on us oppositionists. We can persist, he tells us, at the risk of landing in his stockades.

But this is no longer just our fight. This the people’s fight now.

This is everybody’s fight for liberty. And liberty in this struggle shall not rest in the hospital bed. Nor in the stockades. Nor in the grave.

The risks are etched by Plaza Miranda. And they are written in the ink by which Mr. Marcos suspended our people’s right to habeas corpus.
But against all these risks, we say again: the Filipino people shall overcome!