Filipino survivors of martial law still haunted by abuses 50 years after declaration

The Current25:29Survivors remember declaration of martial law in the Philippines

Warning: This story contains graphic details of torture that may be disturbing to readers.

On the morning of Sept. 23, 1972, Chris Sorio remembers being awoken by his mother at their home in Quezon City in the Philippines. She told him that the country had just been placed under martial law.

“There’s nothing on TV and nothing on the radio,” said Sorio, who was a teenager at the time. He is now 64 and living in Vancouver. “So there’s chaos and confusion among people because they don’t know what’s happening.”

Later that evening, President