Which One to Trust on Marcos' Narratives: Social Media vs. Traditional Media
Were Philippine Historical Books Revised to be Biased Against the Marcoses
Another conspiracy theory that historical textbooks in the country were intentionally revised in favor of the Aquinos and against the Marcoses. Numerous posts from various social media platforms argue that in 1986 after Marcos’ rule came to its end, books were altered resulting in a false assumption of the Filipinos, especially of the youth about the Aquinos. These contents claim that books in the country only showcase the cruelty of the late dictator during the Martial Law but his achievements are yet to be found.
Meanwhile, the traditional media goes with opposing statements. Numerous reports showed that it is the Marcoses themselves that attempted to erase from Philippine history the stories on abuses and corruption during the Martial Law years. It is the Marcoses who insanely and unremittingly attempted committing historical revisionism with the help of their mercenary ‘keyboard trolletariat’ who recycle debunked claims to the manufactured greatness of their custom-made hero. An instance wherein this attempt was observed, as reported by ABS-CBN, is Bongbong’s direct statement: “Nilagay nila sa libro, ng textbook ng mga bata na anito, na ang mga Marcos ganito ang ninakaw, ganito ang ginawa. Ngayon lumalabas sa korte, hindi totoo lahat ng sinabi ninyo dahil di niyo naipakita.” This statement was from the time when BongBong was calling for a revision of Philippine textbooks. However, records from the Sandiganbayan and the Supreme Court were presented by numerous news articles to show that the Marcoses were acquitted in several graft and malversation cases. A July 15, 2003 Supreme Court ruling showed that the Marcoses even admitted that millions of dollars in Swiss accounts belonged to them, which are beyond their lawful income of only US$304,372.43. It was also reported that Imelda Marcos was convicted of 7 counts of graft. Sandiganbayan also forfeited nearly P3 billion of Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth in December 2019. Inquirer also reported that Ateneo de manila University history professor Francis Gealogo was able to discover a 1979 project called “Tadhana (Destiny)” as one of the Marcos’ attempts to refashion history to his liking by employing the leading academics in the 1970s and 80s to justify martial law and his New Society (Bagong Lipunan) as a logical conclusion to the evolutionary development of the Filipino nation.
Sharing again, the same side of the story, VERA Files reported that historians have been watching the Marcoses and their history of commissioning books with their own versions of their story about the former dictator and his 21-year-old martial law rule. And the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC) that is committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous learning asserts that it is the Marcoses that utilizes the phenomenon of “historical revisionism” for their ascend from exile to power. The council even cited how the Marcos siblings oft-repeatedly denied the human rights violations and kleptocracy perpetrated by their father. Their denials though were disproved by court rulings both in the Philippines and abroad, by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), and by the Philippine law. UP Diliman history professor Dr. Ferdinand C. Llanes also shared that he himself reviewed history textbooks and found that many, even those produced during the administration of Corazon Aquino, portrayed the dictator in a positive light, and there has been little improvement since then.
