To Sing Our Own Song (Jose W Diokno, 1983) Full Documentary

In 1983, Jose W. Diokno, lawyer and two-term Senator, narrated this 50-minute documentary on the Marcos dictatorship. The program was produced and aired by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and provided a critical look of the regime at a time when media and opposition in the Philippines were violently silenced. Here, Sen. Diokno reveals government's distorted view of development — one that prioritized patronage over the welfare of its citizens. President Marcos, for example, spent 50% of the national health budget to build a state-of-the-art Heart Center in Manila, while around the country, people were dying of basic illnesses like TB, whooping cough, and dysentery. Human rights abuses The documentary also exposes the inhuman atrocities being committed by the regime. President Marcos fostered a military that used unbridled might to scare citizens into obedience. Ordinary people were arrested and tortured, and entire villages were massacred in broad daylight. Here, we meet an 8-year old girl named Marela. "[The military] began shooting us," she says in Bisaya. "We fell down. My mother put her arm around me. Then, when everything was quiet, I stood up. My mother's head was wounded... My little brother's body was cut in half. I felt my head, it was all bloody — my mother's brains were all over my hair." Another boy watched as soldiers murdered his father. He shares, "He was held... his head was turned sideways. Then it was cut off. They played with my father's head. They pushed it with a stick and kicked it towards a coconut tree... I will avenge my father. Even a small chick can grow up into a fighting cock." Justice and freedom Sen. Diokno notes that the violence and ineptitude of the Marcos leadership was forcing its citizens into extremism. "Martial law destroyed all our democratic institutions, so that people have no way of expressing what they feel and what they want. Protest has gone underground... where the Communist party conducts seminars. [There], moderates like me can't get into the debate. Government oppression is increasingly polarizing discussion... As always, violence breeds violence." Diokno's solution was to create the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), the Philippines' largest network of lawyers, which still operates today. FLAG defends ordinary citizens in court and prosecutes those who abuse their power. Sen. Diokno explains, "No government can depend on force alone. If it continuously depends on force, then the day is going to come when that force is not going to be enough. So government tries to transform that force into law, so that it favors those who are in power. But in the same way, law can be used to fight that force. If law can be used to institutionalize social injustice and inequity... to marginalize people and throw them into poverty, then people can also use law to get out of that situation." Diokno ends the documentary with a message of hope. "It looks impossible for my people to get out of this trap," he says. "But we will. I know my people. Even if we have to wade through blood and fire, we will be free. We will develop. We will build our own societies. We will sing our own songs." (stitched together the original 4 parts and re-published with permission from the family of the late Sen. Jose W. Diokno   / josewdiokno  )