I haven’t been to the Philippines in a while. The last memory I have is me, from four years ago, awkwardly shuffling around the family reunion with a plate of lechon. My uncle was recounting a story from the 80s, when he was still living in Manila, in the middle of the People Power Revolution.

Two years from then, I would be writing my International Baccalaureate thesis on the very same events my uncle—and indeed, most of my family—had lived through. The opinions varied, from people who were torn between political loyalties, those who were in the streets, those who were just barely old enough to remember. But in the end, the consensus was that removing Marcos was the best course of action.

Now, in 2017, the whole world seems to be falling backward in time with reductive policies and politicians everywhere, especially with the current president, Duterte, who takes a page from Marcos’ books.

Ferdinand Marcos was notorious for his kleptocracy and his declaration of martial law—declared on September 21, 1972, Marcos would force his “presidency” beyond the two-term limit, claiming the need to because of insurgent Communist and Muslim forces. Police forces, under his rule, would go on to establish this, brutalizing activists who would stand in their way, while benefitting from Marcos’s distribution of businesses he seized for the purposes of making more money.

Though he was removed after a fraudulent snap election, his legacy remained, and Duterte’s current regime is proof of that. Duterte’s platform he ran on was that he would reduce crimes, especially drug-related ones.

The way he has done that is by mass murder.

Duterte has alternatively confirmed and denied his involvement in the killing of drug users to combat the illegal drug trade—there have been 7,000 reported killings since April of this year and further evidence that there is a quota of “drug users/addicts” that police officers need to kill.

Trust in the police has dropped drastically, especially because the threat of being accused of involvement in the drug trade has been a tactic to eliminate basically anybody. The proof of that?

Drug lords who are associated with Duterte who were involved in drug smuggling operations worth 6 billion dollars are still walking free—including the president’s own son, Paolo Duterte. Politicians who speak up against Duterte are suddenly impeached, with numbers being skewed similarly to the snap elections during Marcos’ time.

The amount of human rights violations under Duterte’s regime have been sickening—but the House of Representatives in the Philippines have sworn their fealty to Duterte by providing only $20 (approximate conversion) to the Commission of Human Rights for the whole year.

Police are ordered not to share their case files with the Commission of Human Rights either. And criticisms from the United Nations regarding these issues were met with Duterte threatening to withdraw from the UN.

These issues are not publicized either—Duterte’s censorship even removed the infamous date that Marcos declared martial law.

Why?

Because Duterte has, in essence, also declared martial law.

In July, Duterte declared martial law in the southern Philippines. And recently, during the protests on September 21 (the anniversary of Marcos declaring martial law), Duterte repeatedly threatened to impose martial law on the rest of the country. He’s also reported extending his presidency to 2025, citing federalism as the reason.

We cannot idly stand by and watch as innocent people are tortured and slaughtered. We cannot allow a dictatorship to arise anywhere in the world if we claim to stand for justice.

We must resist human rights' violations everywhere so that they cannot be violated by anyone, at any time, for any reason. We cannot let the world revert to the old ways, and if there is any time to have a revolution of the people, that critical time is now.