Should the Past really stay in the Past?

It has been thirty-six years since the People Power Revolution, thirty-six years since CBS anchor Bob
Simons said, “We Americans like to think we taught the Filipinos democracy. Well, tonight they are
teaching the world.” The sole purpose of the People Power Revolution was to oust the corrupt Marcos
administration from power, it was a monumental moment in Philippine history. It told the world that the
true purpose of democracy is that it is for the people, by the people. And yet, in recent years we have seen
a complete rewriting of our history, specifically during the times of martial law. The majority of the
population has already forgotten what actually happened during those years of suffering. It is as if all those
innocent killings and unjust arrests have all disappeared into the air.
Historical Revisionism is a big contributor to how we think today, it helps us further understand how we
came to be by thinking of hypothetical theories on specific points in time and denying the theories of others.
It is particularly helpful for studying the prehistoric times when records have yet to exist. However, what
makes Historical Revisionism rather bad is if it is used to cleanse the horrors of the past, it shields students
from finding out about the truth. We Filipinos have definitely been victims of this throughout recent years.
Especially regarding the times of Martial Law and the Marcos Regime. Most Filipinos do not even know
or remember what exactly happened during those years. With this, it is fairly easy to bend the truth and
question whether these atrocities actually happened or not. In a clip from a short documentary by ABC
News entitled, “Return of Marcos: How Philippine[s'] Corrupt Dynasty Rebuilt Its Power | Foreign
Correspondent,” Atty. Larry Gadon was featured and can be seen deeming that what the Marcos family
had done are all lies and is considered propaganda to bring the family name down. He also glorified those
times and called it the Golden Era for the country. With this, it is clear that historical revisionism has
affected the majority of the population in all walks of life. Historical revisionism is generally beneficial,
but in some cases, it can merely be a rephrased version of denial. Denying the fact that these events actually
happened is a disgrace to the actual victims of those events.
There are dozens of credible sources that contradict the popular misconception that the Philippine economy
was one of the highest in Asia during the terms of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. (Punongbayan, 2018) states that
the Philippines experienced its worst inflation spike in the country’s history during the time of Martial Law,
it peaked at 50.4% just before the People Power Revolution. Before this, the inflation rate also spiked from
21.4% in 1971 to 34.2% in 1974, these were all during the Marcos Administration. With this, the value of
the Philippine Peso decreased gradually over the course of more than two decades of Marcos’ Presidency,
from P3.9 in 1965 to P18.6 in 1985 (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 2022).
Another factor to note during the Martial Law was the countless human rights violations done to the people.
According to (Amnesty International, n.d), during the nine years of Martial law under the Marcos
Administration spanning from 1972 to 1981, there have been thousands of illegal arrests, detention,
enforced disappearances, killings, and torture of people, especially individuals who were known
oppositionists of the government. The most notable example of this was the assassination of Ninoy Aquino,
a former senator and primary oppositionist of the Marcos administration. It is also notable that it was often
the military who committed these atrocities but were still under direct orders from the president. Tina
Bawagan was one of the victims of torture done by the military, she was a member of the underground
resistance against the government and was also featured in the short documentary by ABC News. She
recalled herself being detained by soldiers and later handcuffed to a chair; she was then questioned by said
soldiers and when they weren’t satisfied with her answers, they would harass and torture her. Though the
torturing stopped once the soldiers found out about her military ties, she remained detained for another
month. If it was not for her family’s military connections, however, she would have continued to be tortured.
Tina also noted that she had known other victims who were sexually harassed but were not able to say
anything because of the stigma on the general topic.
The Marcos regime has done countless atrocities and yet the majority of the population does not even know
it. With the recent conclusion of the Philippine National Elections, the son of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.,
Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos, Jr. won the presidential position with a staggering thirty-one million votes
against the primary opposition candidate, Leni Robredo’s fourteen million votes. Although Ferdinand
Marcos Jr had already been proclaimed, there are still speculations about whether or not alterations were
made during the elections. University students and other groups continue to protest in the streets to fight
for what they believe is the return of a dictator. However, whether alterations were made in the elections or
not, it is fair to state that Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s campaign in this election was filled with historical
revisionism. The Marcos family name had been completely white-washed of its terrors from the past.
Furthermore, Marcos also glorified the family name and showed the people that his family had done a lot
for the country, even if they equally did as many bad things. With social media taking the Philippines by
storm in recent years, the spread of fake news and misinformation is rampant within the country, majority
of users tend to share fake articles without fact-checking if the information they are sharing is actually
accurate or not. Trolls proliferated social media to further spread fake articles across the online community.
Over 400,000 election-related videos have been taken down by YouTube because these contain significant
amounts of election-related violence and misinformation (Mateo, 2022). Note that the candidate the videos
were supporting was never mentioned.
Historical revisionism is either beneficial or not depending on the context it is used for. On one hand, it is
beneficial as it helps us continue to strive in formulating theories throughout prehistory, but on the other it
enables us to deny the atrocities and horrors from modern history, disgracing the victims of said events.
Whatever our views are regarding historical revisionism and the Marcos administration, both old and new;
We must learn to always fight for what we believe in, because if we don’t, then nobody will ever hear our
voices. Similarly, we must also fight for the truth no matter how bad it is. The youth deserve to learn about
the full truth in school, not the sugarcoated version of it.
References:

 ABC News In-depth. (2022). Return of Marcos: How Philippines’s Corrupt Dynasty Rebuilt Its Power | Foreign
Correspondent [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmGVHgc4Syc

 Enric-Sol, B. G. (2013, September 4). The Philippines: consequences of the “People’s Power Revolution” 25 years later.
WithTheVoices. https://www.withthevoices.com/2013/09/04/the-philippines-consequences-of-the-peoples-power-
revolution-25-years-later/

 Punongbayan, J. (2018, September 21). [ANALYSIS] Golden age? Inflation reached 50% during the Marcos regime.
RAPPLER. https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/212487-inflation-rate-philippines-during-marcos-regime/

 Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. (2022). FX Rates Historic from 1965 USD-PHP – Philippines Information. Retrieved from:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiRk-
PPrPX3AhUjplYBHe1vDDwQFnoECAoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bsp.gov.ph%2Fstatistics%2Fexternal%2
Fpesodollar.xlsx&usg=AOvVaw2kRfAb5LPY2UqeFi3XFtVd

 Amnesty International. (n.d.). Five things to know about Martial Law in the Philippines.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/five-things-to-know-about-martial-law-in-the-philippines/

 Mateo, J. (2022, March 4). Over 400,000 Erring YouTube Videos From Phl Taken Down | OneNews.PH.
https://www.onenews.ph/articles/over-400-000-erring-youtube-videos-from-phl-taken-down