Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 4) — Playwright Bonifacio Ilagan, who was detained in the 1970s during Ferdinand E. Marcos’ Martial Law regime, received death threats from an unknown number where the caller identified himself as “Kumander.”
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According to Ilagan, he received the call on Monday saying that the caller and his unit were tasked to “wipe out communists.”
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Although the caller said he “still had some respect” for Ilagan, he added that his unit is just waiting for the “final order from the higher ups.”
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“They would surely get me, and that I should not ask for mercy, it would be futile, because I had already been warned,” Ilagan said, quoting the warning he received.
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Prior to the call, the playwright said he also received text messages containing curses and threats on account of his activism.
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“This is the first time that I got a call that said much more,” he told CNN Philippines in an email, adding he has since then not received another death threat or similar call.
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“We went to the police only to have the incident recorded in the blotter for our next legal move,” he said.
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On Nov. 17, 2021, Ilagan was among the Martial Law survivors who filed the first disqualification case against then presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for his 1997 conviction for failure to file income tax returns when he was vice governor and governor of Ilocos Norte in the 1980s.
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