READING IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY

NAME: CLARO M. GARCHITORENA YEAR/SECTION/BLOCK: BSN 1C DATE: 11/17/2022

Learning Activity 2: GOLDEN AGE?

Instructions: Watch the video “Need to Know: Totoo bang Golden Age ng Pilipinas ang panahon ng mga
Marcos?” from this link: http://bit.ly/RdgsPHL. While watching, list down the arguments presented by
the experts on why the Marcos years were far from being a golden age. Write your thoughts about the
video.

Arguments presented by the experts:

 Human Rights Abuses

 Percentage of Poor Families in the Philippines
 Daily Wage Rate in Agriculture Constant 1986 Pesos
 Consumer price index NEDA
 Philippine War Damage Special Fund for Education
 Cronyism
 Outstanding External Debt during the Marcos period Skyrocketed

Your thoughts about the video:

- In my opinion about the video, US and Philippine court rulings provide evidence of the Marcos
dictatorship's violations of human rights. Even more, the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board was
established by a statute that our Congress passed, and P10 billion was allocated to pay 70,000 victims of
those gloomy years. According to Amnesty International, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the
Marcos government imprisoned 70,000 people, tortured 34,000 others, and killed 3,240 individuals.
Supporters of Marcos assert that our nation's economic prosperity peaked during the Marcos regime.
They mention the North Luzon Expressway, Maharlika Highway, Kidney Center, Heart Center, Lung
Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, and Light Rail Transit, among other infrastructure
achievements of the dictatorship. Critics of Marcos refer to records showing that these infrastructural
accomplishments were made possible by significant foreign debts that we are currently obligated to pay
for the next 40 years, or until 2025. The country's foreign debt increased dramatically during the Marcos
administration, rising from $599 million in 1966 to $26.7 billion in 1986—a staggering 45 times rise.
These debts were tarnished by many corruption incidents. Our gross domestic product fell to negative
7.32 percent and negative 7.31 percent in 1984 and 1985, respectively, and for the first time in our
history, we were unable to pay our foreign debt. When the Marcoses left, the price of a basic good that
cost P100 in 1976 had tripled, reaching over P400. By the time the Marcos regime collapsed, six out of
ten families were in poverty. Supporters of Marcos assert that Marcos Sr. destroyed the oligarch
families. He did, in fact, divest several oligarch families of their companies. But he established himself as
the largest oligarch by either seizing control of their enterprises or appropriating them. His friends, who
served as his go-betweens, were a new kind of oligarch he had created. When Marcos was overthrown,
his allies admitted to playing dummy and turned over billions to the government. Supporters of Marcos
assert that corruption was not as bad then as it is now. They tell the reality. But the rotten culture we
currently live in was fostered from its infancy under the Marcos dictatorship. Even by the standards of
modern-day corruption, the amount of money the Marcoses stole is not insignificant. The Marcoses
were charged with stealing up to $10 billion from our nation, according to the World Bank and the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Of those illicit riches, our government has so far recovered
P174.2 billion.

Everything hinges on what one reads. If one believes the fabricated or manipulated news, it was a time
of peace and prosperity. If one analyzes court records, economic statistics, and historical papers, one
finds that it was a golden age of corruption, abuses, and terrible misery.