The documentary was produced by the Foundation for Worldwide People Power, headed by Eugenia Apostol. It was broadcast on the ABS-CBN television network on September 21, 1997. The documentary was subsequently released on VHS.
Synopsis
It features the human rights violations during martial law in the Philippines, the economy, and the biographies of Ferdinand Marcos, his wife Imelda Marcos, and his prominent critic, Benigno Aquino Jr.
Interviewees
The following is a list of interviewees in the documentary, conducted from March until May 1997:[4]
Eugenia Apostol, a journalist and publisher, brought a film crew together to create a documentary under her newly established Foundation for Worldwide People Power (renamed as the Eggie Apostol Foundation in 2012) about the injustices committed during the two-decade presidency of Ferdinand Marcos.[2][6] Jon Red and Jeannette Ifurung became the film's pair of directors, with the former focusing on dramatizations and shoots on location, while the latter focused on post-production.[1] The resulting work became the most expensive documentary film produced in the Philippines.[2]
Release
Batas Militar aired on Philippine television network ABS-CBN on September 21, 1997, the 25th anniversary of the proclamation that placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972 and was repeated on February 25, 2016, the 30th anniversary of the People Power Revolution,[2] subsequently airing on PTV in 1998 and 2012, two ABS-CBN-owned cable channels ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) in 2000, 2012 and 2016, and Knowledge Channel from 2011 until 2012.[7][2][8] Afterwards, it was subsequently released on VHS.[2][9] As of 2016, the documentary has not yet been released on the DVD format.[2] However, the Eggie Apostol Foundation had posted the film available for streaming online on Facebook in September 2018, and then the filmmaker Mike de Leon has since posted the entire film on Vimeo, both but with additional archival footage not shown on the original broadcast and VHS release, omitting the film's mention of the 1968 Jabidah massacre and the 1972 Typhoon Rita. The addition of Englishsubtitles was uploaded through his Citizen Jake production account on February 1, 2019.[1][10]