Francisco Tatad "Proclamation No. 1081" (lost Filipino TV footage of presidential speech; 1972)

Only surviving footage of the speech.

Status: Lost

At 7:15pm on September 23, 1972, then-president Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in the entire Philippines, broadcasting it on television. With other Filipino political elites in jail or exiled, media was also affected. TV networks such as ABS-CBN, MBC, ABC-5, and newspapers were closed. Only Roberto Benedicto's KBS-9 (now RPN-9/CNN Philippines) and Philippine Daily Express were allowed to continue their operations, due to his association to Ferdinand Marcos. RBS TV and IBC was initially closed, but they were allowed by the government to return on the air few months later.

Info

According to Boo Chanco, TV networks that time was closed on the morning of September 23, 1972, due to martial law, showing static and color bars. KBS-9 went back on air in the afternoon, playing episodes of Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races series. It was interrupted by then-Press Secretary Fransisco Tatad and he read Proclamation No. 1081. It is said that KBS-9 went on-air at 3pm, while Boo Chanco stated that Francisco Tatad himself went on-air at 3pm.

Another eyewitness account stated that KBS-9 went on-air with a black screen and already followed by appearances of Marcos and Tatad. Another eyewitness recalled the song "Bagong Lipunan" played when KBS was on-air with Sonny Cortez and Mildred Ortega singing the song.

The only surviving picture of the proclamation was found by Filipino archivist StupidStickman on October 24, 2023, from the Daily Express Sept 24 issue uploaded on Twitter a year prior. It's been theorized that it might be lying somewhere in the archives of PTV-4, RPN-9, and IBC-13.