FACT-CHECK: Marcos declared Martial Law to thwart communist takeover

Rating: False

Facebook page “BBM SARA Tv’s” video on July 31 repeated the old, false narrative that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial rule to stem a growing communist rebellion.

“[I]toy upang mapigilan ang kaguluhan at ang pag dami ng mga makakaliwang grupo,” its video caption claimed.

That’s not the real reason, however.

Marcos wanted to “steal power” for himself as the end of his second and final term in office drew near, according to the Martial Law Museum.

The communists however did not have the capacity to take control of the country.

“[I]ndependent reports suggest that at the time, there were only about 1,000 NPA guerrillas, whose arms were old-fashioned. In the NPA’s own history, only 350 men with first-line rifles were documented at the time of Martial Law,” said the Martial Law Museum.

Moreover, the immediate justification for martial rule, the supposed ambush of Defense 

Minister Juan Ponce Enrile’s convoy, is deemed a hoax.

Enrile in his memoirs published in 2012, eventually denied that his ambush was staged.

But he had several prior statements confessing to the hoax, especially during the 1986 EDSA People Power revolt.

And there’s the testimony of businessman Oscar Lopez, who said he saw Enrile’s vehicle riddled with bullets, but empty and without any trace of blood.

BBM SARA Tv’s video has been viewed more than 700 times since it was posted on Facebook.

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