ESCAPE THROUGH THE BACKDOOR

By Philip M. Lustre Jr. 

Dictator Ferdinand Marcos did not make any distinction of his enemies. Any critic was fair game for Marcos. He did not distinguish if critics belonged to the legitimate political opposition, reformist mass organizations, or extremist groups espousing armed revolution against his government.

During the martial law period that covered 1972-1986, Marcos hounded and harassed his critics without letup. They were arrested and jailed without charges, tortured in most instances, and summarily executed in some. He also surreptitiously ordered their involuntary disappearances, giving rise to the Philippine version of “desaparecidos” (disappeared).

But not all slept during the dark days of our country. Political opposition against the September 21, 1972 declaration of martial law jelled and grew. A number of his political antagonists escaped the country only to go elsewhere and resume their opposition to his martial law regime, which later metamorphosed into a one-man rule.

When these political oppositionists could not escape through the front door, or the legitimate way, they went out through the backdoor. That was escaping through the circuitous route of going to either Zamboanga City, or Jolo in the South, travel by boat through Sulu Sea, and finally to Sabah. From Sabah, they first took flights to either Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur and later to the United States, their final destination.

Heherson Alvarez, Cecille Guidote

Heherson Alvarez, a student leader at the University of the Philippines, represented Isabela in the 1971 Constitution Convention that drafted the 1973 Constitution, which eventually became the blueprint of the Marcos dictatorship. Cecille Guidote, who came from a landed family in Manila, was an acclaimed theater scholar, who founded and led the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA). They were about to get married when Marcos declared martial law.

Because Heherson was among the Constitutional Convention delegates, who opposed any term extension for Ferdinand Marcos or wife Imelda as his replacement, He was a marked man. Marcos ordered his military henchmen to hunt, arrest, and jail Heherson. Since he declared martial law, Marcos could do it even without any arrest warrant and formal charges against him.

When I was a reporter covering the Senate, Heherson Alvarez, who later became a senator in the post-Marcos Senate, confirmed that he escaped when Marcos declared martial because he was on the order of battle, or the list of people, who faced arrest and detention. Had he not escaped through the backdoor, he could have faced prolonged detention without charges or even torture.

But it was not easy for Heherson. According to Aquilino Pimentel Jr.’s book “Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story,” which contains his memoirs, Heherson Alvarez, a wanted man upon martial law declaration, told him he hid in the houses of friends for six months. But it was businessman Ricardo Delgado, “who went out of his way to help me escape,” Nene Pimentel said quoting Heherson.

Nene said quoting Heherson: “After successfully eluding the Marcos military on land, I hitched a ride in a small vessel in Manila that was bound for Hong Kong through Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. The captain of the ship agreed to smuggle me out of the country after I assured him that I was a social democrat, not a communist.”

According to Nene Pimentel, Heherson went to Paris from Hong Kong because at that time Filipinos who went there were not required to present visas. He laid low there for a while as he waited for a chance to the United States, where Cecille was already there, waiting for him.

In the absence of any formal ceremony, Heherson and Cecille had a “matrimonia de consciencia,” which has made them husband and wife. The exigency of those days prompted them to get marriage in an expeditious way. In the U.S., Heherson Alvarez along with Raul Manglapus, a former senator and Department of Foreign Affairs secretary, organized the Movement for Free Philippines, which became a strong lobby group that opposed the Marcos dictatorship in the U.S.

Other escapees

According to Nene Pimentel’s book, 1971 Constitution Convention Delegate Bonifacio Gillego, who later became a lawmaker in post-Marcos Congress, Charito Planas, Gaston Ortigas, Pacita LaO Manglapus, Raul’s wife, and their three sons, Raul Jr., Bobby, and Francis,and academic Gerry Jumat and wife Boots Ayson took that the southern backdoor to escape the Marcos dictatorship. They all settled in the United States, where they carried the anti-dictatorship struggle.

Nene said: “Gillego, Planas and Gillego told me of the harrowing experiences they went through their getaways. They shared with me their hair-raising chance encounters with people who knew them but who did not appear to have recognized them, or their near brushes with military agents. Gillego had to disguise themselves, the latter donning a wig, and had to use assumed identities. Charito wore a nun’s habit. Mrs. Manglapus was ‘Portia Molina’ in her escape, while Gerry and Boots Jumat used their ethnic connections with the Tausugs of of Sulu and Sabah to elude the Marcos rule.”

According to Nene, Raul Manglapus was on a stopover in Tokyo en route to the U.S. to deliver a speech when Marcos declared martial law in 1972. Upon his family’s advice, Manglapus proceeded to the U.S. but did not return to Manila. His family tried to follow him in the U.S., but Marcos did not allow them to leave through legal means.

Through the help of Joey Ortiz, a Philippine Consulate official, assisted Manglapus to go to Washington D.C. to become a political refugee. Ortiz lost his job. Meanwhile, Mrs. Manglapus and his three sons decided to leave through the backdoor. They first went to Zamboanga City. From there, they went to Sitangkai using a fast moving kumpit.

From Sitangkai, an island in the Tawi Tawi province, they went to the town of Tawau in Sabah and took refuge in a Catholic convent there. After a few days, they went to Kuala Lumpur, where they took a plane going to the U.S.

But escaping through the backdoor was not easy, according to Nene Pimentel. The Sulu Sea had pirates. Moreover, Philippine Navy boats were also manning that part. Still, the opposition leaders managed to escape through the southern backdoor to fight another battle on another day.