Appendix 5.3: Letter of Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, SJ on the Barangay Brigade or Barangay Kawal, 22 May 1979

Abstract

No document has thus far been found to corroborate this account of a cult-like rite wherein fealty is sworn to Ferdinand Marcos. However, knowing that there were eventually Marcos cults (allegedly organized by the military, see “Editors’ Introduction” in this volume) and the centrality of the barangay to Marcos’s political machinery, it is not farfetched that the reported rituals, or versions thereof, did take place.