Student groups and youth organizations assemble at the Edsa Shrine in Quezon City on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, during the “Walk for Truth and Justice.” Mobilized ahead of the 54th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law and marking one year since the Trillion-Peso March, protesters called for government transparency regarding an ongoing flood-control corruption scandal and rallied against entrenched political dynasties. —Inquirer photo/Grig C. Montegrande
MANILA, Philippines — More than 17,000 police officers have been deployed since Saturday night for the 54th commemoration of martial law on Monday, as multisectoral groups plan to march on the streets to mark an episode more than half a century ago that continues to influence the country’s political life.
The Philippine National Police said on Sunday that personnel would be “on standby,” with police officers wearing body cameras to document incidents during the assemblies.
Meanwhile, the country’s capital suspended all classes on Monday in line with the commemoration of martial law.
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Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso said on Sunday that the class suspension was based on the recommendation of the Manila Police District.
READ: Manila suspends in-person classes Sept. 21 over Martial Law anniv rally
In a statement on Sunday, PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said: “We urge protesters to obey the rules, follow the instructions of our law enforcers, and respect each other’s rights to prevent any disorder. Let’s make this day sensible and safe.”
He also reminded the police to avoid violence in dealing with protesters.
Security forces are preventing a repeat of last year’s riot in Mendiola, outside Malacañang, when rioters hijacked an anti-corruption rally, leaving one person dead, hundreds injured and at least 216 people arrested.
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‘Gen Z will never forget’
Ahead of today’s protests, around 1,000 youth and students marched from La Salle Greenhills to Edsa Shrine on Sunday, calling for continued efforts to address corruption, impunity and political dynasties.
“Arresting a few people and filing cases [are] not enough. We need to see this fight through, hold all corrupt individuals accountable, recover every peso stolen from the people, and dismantle the system that enriches a few while making life harder for the majority,” said Khylla Meneses, Akbayan Youth national chair and lead convener of Youth Against Kurakot.
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Akbayan added: “Gen Z will never forget. We will continue to organize. And we will come back again and again to this place to finish the fight.”
Today’s protests also serve to commemorate the anniversary of the declaration of martial law in 1972, as activists relate the conditions then to the continuing corruption and abuse by government officials today, as well as last year’s Trillion Peso March against alleged misuse of infrastructure funds.
“As our people suffer from perennial flooding despite billions supposedly spent on flood control, we are once more witnesses to wholesale graft and corruption at the highest levels of government,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said in a statement.
“The government should be addressing corruption, poverty, human rights violations, and threats to national sovereignty, not manufacturing fear around legitimate protests,” it added.
Nationwide protests
A “Mass of Hope” will be presided by San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza in San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila, at 1 p.m., organized by the interfaith group, “One Faith, One Nation, One Voice.”
Although the service is led by a Catholic prelate, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, one of the largest mainline Protestant Christian denominations in the country, urged its members to join the Mass.
The group will also march to Liwasang Bonifacio to join the multisectoral rally organized by Kilusang Bayan Kontra Kurakot, composed of inter-religious groups, laborers, farmers, members of the academe, students, and youth groups.
Bayan-led rallies will also be held in the following areas:
Luzon
Baguio City
Abra
Legazpi City in Albay
Calamba and Santa Rosa in Laguna
Bacoor in Cavite
Lucena in Quezon
Visayas
Iloilo City
Bacolod City
Tacloban City
Roxas City
Kalibo City
Mindanao
Davao City
‘Midwife of high crimes’
A candle-lighting ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. at Bantayog ng mga Bayani, Quezon City, led by the Buhay ang People Power Campaign Network, with civil society group August Twenty-One Movement (Atom) participating.
“Martial law is definitely the midwife of all Philippine high crimes and other social cancers like extreme poverty, foreign debt, extrajudicial killings, which were called “salvaging” then, and political dynasty,” Atom said in a statement on Sunday.
Under martial law, an estimated 70,000 people were illegally arrested, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed, as then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. suspended civil liberties and established authoritarian rule, thereby extending seven years in power at that point to another 14 years.
Martial law was actually enforced on the night of Sept. 22, announced by Marcos the next day, and antedated to Sept. 21, his preferred commemoration date, which activists have also acknowledged since.
He cited the corruption and other abuses of the oligarchy, and the resulting threat of a communist rebellion, as the basis for martial rule.
Atom, however, noted that “The Marcoses and their cronies built one of the 20th century’s most brazen kleptocracies, an estimated $10 billion stolen from a nation that went without hospitals, classrooms, and decent wages.”
It called for the reopening or retrial of Imelda Marcos’ graft cases where legally possible, as well as greater transparency in their handling and a full accounting of Marcos-era ill-gotten wealth.
“Martial law did not just terrorize a generation. It taught every strongman that after that, cruelty works, plunder is survivable, and power outlasts the courts,” it added.
Malacañang, meanwhile, urged organizers and participants to keep demonstrations peaceful.
“The president is not preventing or restricting our fellow Filipinos from expressing their sentiments at these assemblies,” said Palace press officer Claire Castro. “But there is no need for violence, physical harm, or for any of our fellow citizens to lose their lives because our president listens to every concern raised by our people.”