Filipino activists vowed on Wednesday to “never forget” human rights abuses under former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, coming 50 years after he imposed martial law.

Amnesty International estimates that thousands were killed and tens of thousands tortured and imprisoned after Marcos imposed martial law on September 21, 1972, unleashing security forces on rivals, critics and dissidents.

Marcos’ son is now President of the Philippines and activists have urged him to acknowledge his family’s role in the violence.

“The Marcoses must at least recognize their role in these dark days,” said Carlos Conde, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, as activists and victims celebrated the 50th anniversary.

“Without telling the truth, without the space for Filipinos to understand and accept what happened during martial law, we can never find closure, we can never move forward.”

Hundreds of protesters held peaceful rallies in the capital, Manila, carrying placards with slogans such as “Never Again.”

“A nation that doesn’t remember its history is doomed to repeat it as it says,” said John Magtibay, a 22-year-old film student who was demonstrating at the University of the Philippines.

“We’re starting to see that now.”

Half a century after martial law began, 11,103 people have been officially recognized as victims of torture, murder, enforced disappearance and other ill-treatment.

They were compensated with part of the fortune, estimated at billions of dollars, stolen from Marcos and his wife Imelda.

But human rights groups say there has never been a real account of the abuses – or those responsible have been held accountable.

Marcos was ousted from power in a bloodless People Power revolt in 1986, and the family was exiled.

After the Patriarch’s death in 1989, they returned to the Philippines and began a remarkable political comeback, culminating in the victory of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the May 9 presidential election.

His landslide victory was aided by a massive online misinformation campaign that whitewashed abuses and corruption during the dictatorship.

Victims of martial law and activists have called the Marcos regime “one of the darkest periods” in the country’s history.

They accuse Marcos Jr. and his supporters of distorting the facts about martial law and misrepresenting it as a “golden age” for the Philippines.

“There are young Filipinos who are interested in knowing what really happened, despite many others who have actually been blinded,” said former political prisoner Bonnie Ilagan, who spent two years in prison where he was repeatedly tortured.

“The fight goes on. We must never forget.”

Ilagan and others accused Marcos’ allies in Congress of cutting budgets and weakening the government agencies responsible for preserving the nation’s past.

Ahead of the anniversary on Wednesday, documentary screenings and exhibitions were held to educate the public about the horrors of martial law.

A left-wing political party said they were forced to cancel a film showing in suburban Manila on Tuesday after five members of the local police intelligence unit showed up and “harassed” them and “shot a video”.

Marcos Jr., who has repeatedly praised his father’s rule, last week defended martial law as “necessary” to protect the country from Communist and Muslim insurgencies.

“We recognize the problems that have happened, the abuses that have occurred, like in any war,” Marcos Jr.

But he said critics were “wrong” to call his father a “dictator”.

“There’s no reason to revise history,” he said, while suggesting that textbooks be rewritten “only if they’re wrong.”

Cristina Palabay of the Karapatan Human Rights Alliance accused Marcos Jr. and his government of spreading “one lie after another”.

“There must be an institutionalized recognition and grand reckoning of the crimes committed by Marcos and his ilk,” she said.