“With God’s Light:” The Religious Rhetoric during Philippine Martial Law (1972-1981)

This thesis investigates political rhetoric in the Philippines during the martial law period to understand how moral language, emanating from a Catholic domain, was used to uphold the regime. For my examination, I analyzed texts from First Lady Imelda Marcos and President Ferdinand Marcos. My analytical framework was interdisciplinary in nature. Building on a recent martial law scholarship, I articulated a theoretical framework, the spiritual-imaginary, by drawing on postcolonial cultural critique and critical metaphor studies to articulate. In centering an interior domain, the spiritual-imaginary is able to interpret morality as it produces and signifies the particular fantasy of the New Society. Broadly, I uncover how the Filipino subject is Staged as incomplete and must be completed, which is accomplished through the salvific relationship between dictatorship and people. My examination of rhetoric takes place across three sections. In my introduction, I use the declaration of martial law to frame the spiritualimaginary. In Chapter One, I draw on speeches from Imelda Marcos to uncover how idealized forms of masculinity and femininity communicate divine commitments to the regime. In Chapter Two, I examine how State of the Nation Addresses from Ferdinand Marco stage the salvation of the Filipino people, placing the dictator at the center. Given the increasing influence of authoritarianism and revisionism, this thesis offers a different means of examining dictatorship.