The Escalante massacre was an incident on September 20, 1985, in Escalante,

Negros Occidental Negros Occidental ( hil, Nakatungdang Negros; tl, Kanlurang Negros), officially the Province of Negros Occidental, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region. ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, where government

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

forces gunned down

civilians Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

engaged in a rally in commemoration of the 13th anniversary of the declaration of

Martial Law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Martia ...

. It is also called Escam -

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

Background

The declaration of martial law on September 21, 1972, by President

Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...

proved to be the dawning of darker days for the country. Although martial rule was lifted by Marcos on January 17, 1981, the

writ of habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

remained suspended. Citizens merely protesting the policies of the Marcos government risked

arrest without warrant An arrest without warrant or a warrantless arrest is an arrest of an individual without the use of an arrest warrant. England and Wales Section 24 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, as of 1 January 2006, provides that a constabl ...

and

indefinite detention Indefinite detention is the incarceration of an arrested person by a national government or law enforcement agency for an indefinite amount of time without a trial; the practice violates many national and international laws, including human ri ...

. Escalante is a town in the province of Negros Occidental. It is 95 kilometers northeast of Bacolod City, the capital of the province. It was made into a city in 2001. Negros Occidental is a province made prosperous by the sugar industry. Since the

Spanish colonial period Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain ** Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, C ...

, it had exported sugar and sugar products. Large tracts of sugarcane plantations or haciendas were under the ownership of the elite, the hacienderos, who became extremely rich and powerful. Labor was often provided by live-in workers called ''sacada''s who were frequently migrants from neighboring provinces. Poor, often severely exploited and powerless, these workers remain landless.

Negros and the Marcos regime

In the 1970s and 80s, the plummeting price of sugar in the world market triggered a severe socioeconomic crisis. As production slowed down, many plantation workers lost their jobs, resulting in widespread poverty. Children died from hunger and malnutrition. When the crony-controlled sugar industry imploded, the sacadas, and even a small number of enlightened landowners, said they had had enough. This triggered protest actions demanding agrarian reform and land distribution, fair wage, and improved government services. As a result, social tension was often high in the province. The governor of Negros Occidental at that time was Armando Gustilo, a former member of the pre-martial law Congress. A landowner himself, he was also a known crony of then-president Ferdinand E. Marcos. Gustilo reportedly formed a private army which, together with the military, terrorized the island in order to quell the growing dissent against the Marcos dictatorship. Adding to the tension of the times was the proposed creation of the province of Negros del Norte from

. Citizens saw this as a maneuver by Marcos cronies in the northern portion of the province to consolidate more power. Negros del Norte was created from Negros Occidental on January 3, 1986, but its creation was later found to be unconstitutional and was abolished on August 18, 1986.

Attack

On September 18, 1985, a crowd composed of sugar workers, farmers, fisherfolk, students, urban poor, professionals, and church people staged a noise protest in the town center. The crowd was estimated to number 5000. The next day, the protesters set up human barricades in front of the public market and at the entrance of the municipal plaza. On the morning of September 20, a police car approached the picket line and the protest leaders were invited to a negotiation conference at the municipal building that was about fifty meters from the barricades, which the leaders refused. About mid-afternoon, fire trucks arrived and began to bombard the picket line with high-pressure water and

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

. The crowd was surrounded by members of the Regional

Special Action Force The Special Action Force (SAF) is the elite unit of the Philippine National Police founded by Fidel V. Ramos, later the twelfth president of the Philippines. History Formed on May 12, 1983, by the now-defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) as t ...

(RSAF) and the

Civilian Home Defense Forces Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not " combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant ...

(CHDF). When some protestors threw back the tear gas canisters into the empty plaza, the paramilitary forces, who would later allege that a few "trouble-makers" tried to grab their weapons, opened fire into the masses.

Aftermath

1986 rally against the Marcos Dictatorship in which protesters hold up images of Escalante Massacre victims

Accounts of the number of casualties vary: between twenty and thirty dead, and thirty wounded. After the crowd had dispersed, the site was cordoned off by the paramilitary units and onlookers were ordered to bring the wounded to hospitals in the town. The bodies were recovered from the rally site and in the sugarcane fields surrounding the location. Buildings and concrete walls nearby were riddled with bullet holes. The government organized the Escalante Massacre Fact-Finding Commission chaired by

Ombudsman An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...

Justice Raul M. Gonzalez (as of 2007, the Secretary of the Department of Justice). The commission recommended that the government indemnify the victims' next of kin, which was never done. In 2003, three low-ranking policemen jailed for their alleged role in the

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

were released on parole.

Memorials

The Escalante martyrs have been memorialized in a number of ways, most notably through a monument in the plaza very near the spot where the victims were killed, and through the names of the martyrs being inscribed on the wall of remembrance at the

Bantayog ng mga Bayani The Bantayog ng mga Bayani (), sometimes simply referred to as the Bantayog, is a monument, museum, and historical research center in Quezon City, Philippines, which honors the martyrs and heroes of the struggle against the dictatorship of for ...

. The names of the Escalante martyrs inscribed on the wall of remembrance are as follows:

References