- Sep 20, 2021
- 10 min read

Do You Remember the 21st Night of September?

Historical Lies and Distortions About the Martial Law Period

One of the most exciting part of being a HUMSS student is the debates, whether it's just inside or outside of a classroom. It's pre-pandemic era, and we were still Grade 11, our professor in Understanding Culture, Politics, and Society assigned to us our topic for the classroom debate: is Marcos the greatest Philippine president and is the Martial Law Period the golden age of the Philippines? My team was designated to the pro-Marcos position. By that time, I am personally half-hearted about my opinion on the issue, since I just want to acknowledge that both sides might have sound points. Nevertheless, we were delighted, since we thought that we have a lot of ammunition against the anti-Marcos position. What could possibly go wrong?

Pointing out all of the establishments and infrastructures during his 2-decade term was probably our easiest task, but researching for credible primary and secondary sources had been the most challenging part. We were wondering why almost all established historians and Martial Law authors are Marcos critics. That's where I stumbled upon the world of Marcos propaganda. It started from joining a Facebook group called "Real Philippine History" because, well, I expected actual Philippine history posts. But little that I know, most of the posts are just about glorifying (even borderline worshipping) Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte, and endlessly trash-talking the Aquinos and the so-called "Dilawans." That was actually new, at least to me, as I am used to learning about the Martial Law human rights violations and the People Power Revolution. I always used to keep hearing about Macoy and his family in a negative way, I mean, where are the positive perspectives?

"This is a true history that history books doesn't tell you," they said. "All historians are biased Dilawans/communists and they are lying to you," they claimed. Those posts, memes, and videos were definitely eye-catching, that I guarantee. The feeling of possessing "forbidden knowledge" that many people don't know somehow made me feel superior. From joining FB groups, I proceeded to watching YouTube videos from Marcos loyalists like Sangkay Janjan TV, mainly for the sake of gathering data for our Marcos debate. Not gonna lie, they are extremely attractive to the eyes of the public, that even I forgot to ask myself on whether they have any basis at all for everything that they say. Then the day of debate came, and it was awful, at least for me.

We can't compete properly against the anti-Marcos side. Everything that they said was backed up by actual facts and evidence. Everything that we used as our data were nothing but mere barefaced lies, half-truths, and propaganda, intentionally engineered to bring back the "glory" of the Marcoses. That debate was an eye-opener. That may be one of my most embarrassing days, but it sure saved me from being a nutjob pseudohistorian and a fake news peddler.

Remembering Martial Law

It's not unusual why the words "Martial Law" is such a red flag for human rights advocates, historians, and most historically literate Filipinos, and that's for a good reason. The day of Marcos signing the Proclamation No. 1081 on September 21, 1972 will forever be an infamous date in our consciousness as a society (Sure, the official announcement happened in September 23, however we now tend to associate September 21 to be the day of declaration, since that's the date written on the document anyway) (1). But it is frightening how today's generation is forgetting one of the darkest periods in Philippine history, and remembering something else different. For example, there is this one scene in Lauren Greenfield's documentary The Kingmaker, where several high school students in a particular school were having a history lesson with their teacher asked them "Ano ang nababasa niyo or naririnig niyo tungkol sa Martial Law, tungkol kay Marcos?" And their answers were disappointing, to say the least.

"Nung panahon po ni Marcos, lahat po ng mga tao, disiplinado."

"Pero ano naman po, narinig ko din po na ano, naging mayaman po yung Pilipinas sa ano po, sa regime niya po."

"Pero po dahil po daw sa Martial Law, naging maayos saka tahimik din po yung Pilipinas."

"Yung panahon daw po ng Martial Law, magiging mapayapa daw po yung mga buhay ng tao."

Sure, there is some truth in what these children were saying. They're talking about the Martial Law, from the perspective of indifferent and unaffected Filipinos who lived under the Marcos regime; those who didn't bother criticizing the wrongdoings and atrocities of the government. 1970s was definitely a bad decade for those who can't help but point out that there really is something massively wrong.

There paradox of social media is that it has the power to bring true and accurate information easily accessible to the public, but so does false and inaccurate data. But the scary thing is, the latter travels way faster. Those students who said that the Martial Law period was peaceful, prosperous, and safe, are now vulnerable to becoming those Macoy apologists who claim that the Martial Law is the "Golden Age of the Philippines," that Marcos was the best president in our history. If history buffs like me can be in danger from this historical distortions, then anybody can.

Manipulating the Past

Among all of the presidents served in this country, Ferdinand Marcos was certainly the most Orwellian. A draconian ruler who governed the Philippines with rampant corruption, censorship, surveillance, propaganda, and manipulation of history. The Marcosian regime was too similar to the premise of George Orwell's novel 1984, that his 21-year rule even lasted past the actual year of 1984. But there is one thing that this dictator is different from the Big Brother: he is still in control of the minds of the populace even decades after his death.

President Marcos on TV, announcing his Martial Law declaration

Marcos was already an established liar from the very beginning. From his alleged war medals and claims of highest bar exam score, to outright denial of military atrocities and political prisoners under his rule. And they are still continued by his family and loyalists. But do not expect me to cover and disprove all the Martial Law disinformation spread into social media in this article, since credible news sites like Rappler, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and Philippine Star already did a great job of debunking them. Instead, I want to talk about what might happen if we let historical distortion take its course into our social consciousness.

In 2019, Rappler conducted a study regarding the scope of Marcos propaganda in social media, where they tracked 360 pages and 280 groups who support the Marcos family. Many Facebook pages who spread these propaganda where fan pages of President Duterte and Senator Bong Go (2). These pages and groups skyrocketed during the 2016 presidential elections in support of Duterte for presidency and Bongbong Marcos for vice presidency. Usual posts are aimed to reshape the perception of the masses to the Marcos family, from over-exaggerating the achievements of the late dictator, to downplaying or outright denying his corruption and human rights violations, not to mention mindlessly vilifying critics as "Dilawans" and communist terrorists, exactly what I have encountered during my crappy DDS phase. For what end, you might ask? To reclaim Malacanang and put the Marcoses back into power, to restore the so-called "good ol' days."

I appreciate the sane people on the internet who fact-checks historical information online and share credible posts debunking these myths, but for Christ's sake, stop calling them as historical revisionism! Historical revisionism is about correcting our wrong perception of the past through recent evidence and more accurate interpretation. That is what a historian is supposed to do in the first place. For example, we used to be taught about Otley Beyer's Migration Theory, the existence of the Code of Kalantiaw, and Rizal being the author of the poem "Sa Aking mga Kabata," but they all turned out to be, well, false. What these Macoy loyalists are doing is not correcting our wrong historical knowledge, but forced-feeding propaganda and distortions for Marcos family's personal gain. It's nothing but a steaming pile of horse crap. Historian Ambeth Ocampo hit the bullseye when he said this in his Inquirer column last year about the proposed bill of turning September 11 into Ferdinand Marcos Day (3):

"I wish people will call a spade a spade, and stop describing the whitewash of the Marcos dictatorship and the martial law years as “historical revisionism.” Historical revision means correcting what is wrong, erroneous, or false. The pro-Marcos narrative continually foisted on us, especially in social media, is nothing but barefaced lies and half-truths. This is not historical revisionism." - Ambeth Ocampo

The Dangers of Historical Distortion

They say that one way to oppress and enslave people is to make them forget about their own history. That if you repeated a lie over and over again, it eventually becomes the truth. Distorting and manipulating public perception about what happened in the past is not only inaccurate and false, but also dangerous and immoral. The last time a massive historical distortion happened, it was in 1930's Germany and it resulted in the Holocaust. The Jewish people in Europe suffered tons of antisemitism, which exacerbated by Nazi propaganda. Under Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Nazi Minister of Propaganda, they made the German populace believe that the Jews were the cause of all of their problems, denied their humanity, and twisted German history, erasing any Jewish contributions. They also made fake commercials to show that they were treating the Jews great inside internment camps, while in reality, they were being systematically murdered.

Today, neo-Nazis spread disinformation on the internet, downplaying Hitler's atrocities, glorifying the Third Reich, and denying that the Holocaust happened (4). Gosh, just imagine if Goebbels has a Facebook account and an army of internet trolls. He could convince the whole world that killing Jews is moral and Aryan people is the most superior race. You think that only happens in an authoritarian society? Wait until you study Black American history. Racist white American assholes on the internet are subscribing into Lost Cause Myth, a bullshit pseudo-historical idea that the cause of the Confederacy during the American Civil War is noble, and not about slavery. Even if you are not an American, there is a chance that you have encountered some people on the internet regarding Civil War who say, "Civil War is about states' rights, not slavery!" Uhhmm, states' rights to what? That's right, to own slaves!

They are basically saying that the slave trade brought economic prosperity in the United States, that the African slaves were even grateful and happy with their masters, that it was overall moral and beneficial. The Civil War, they claim, happened because they were protecting the so-called "Southern way of life" and "states' rights" against the "Northern aggressors" (4). However in reality, the Lost Cause Myth was simply invented by the outraged Southerners to cope with the fact that they were losers. Confederate sympathizers today use this narrative to promote racism and white supremacy, downplaying slavery and glorifying Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Worse, it was used to deny the history of black Americans, further subjugating them up until now. Hell, racists Republican politicians even attempt to block the teaching Critical Race Theory in every American schools, firing teachers and principals who would dare teach it (6). Well, what is wrong with teaching that all people are equal regardless of the race? What is wrong with teaching kids accurate history of the people of color?

The point is, historical negationism is not just a problem here in the Philippines. The Turkish government is still in denial about the Armenian genocide (7), many Russians today are still nostalgic about Stalin's regime (8), and the Japanese government still refuse to acknowledge their war crimes during WWII (9). Marcos propaganda that glorifies the Martial Law period is literally a slap to the faces of the victims of the dictatorship. Erasing them in our social consciousness is worse than spitting on their graves. By liking and sharing Facebook posts or YouTube videos containing these falsehoods, you are contributing to the problem.

Conclusion

It is now less than a year before the next 2022 presidential elections, and Bongbong Marcos is now very likely to run for the presidency despite still being pissed about Leni Robredo beating him in 2016 elections. As usual, he is now going into interviews, whitewashing the crimes of his parents. It is now expected that Marcos propaganda would spread again online. I am afraid about the future of our nation where the Filipino people might finally forget our own history and foster their blind fanaticism to a dead tyrant. The fact that this political dynasty can still run for office and never even went behind bars is already a sad reflection of our justice system's incompetence and the citizens' tendency to become gullible.

I will be a first time voter in May 2022, and so does more than 60 million Filipinos (10), and more than half of them are young people (11). We now not have any excuses to not vote wisely (actually, there is no election that we should not vote wisely). It is our responsibility to think like a historian even though most of us are not actual historians. Demand evidence, be more critical, evaluate, analyze. This is not about siding with the Aquinos, never was, never will be. This is about siding with the Filipino people, not any color or party or ideology. The future of the Philippines is at stake on choosing the next leader of our country.

The Marcos family doesn't represent the interest of the masses, and history already demonstrated that to be true. Macoy was certainly not the best president, let alone a hero. He never made the Philippines the richest country in Asia, and his regime was responsible for countless violations of the basic civic liberties. No amount of historical whitewashing and embellishment could and should change that fact, unless we let them. Like what the Spanish philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who do not learn from their own history are doomed to repeat it."

Never forget, never again.

Links to Sites Debunking Martial Law and Marcos Falsehoods:

Sources:

(1) Official Gazette (2021). Declaration of Martial Law. Retrieved from https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/featured/declaration-of-martial-law/

(2) Mendoza, G. B. (2019). Networked propaganda: How the Marcoses are using social media to reclaim Malacañang. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/marcos-networked-propaganda-social-media

(3) Ocampo, A. O. (2020). Lies are not historical revisionism. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved from https://opinion.inquirer.net/133424/lies-are-not-historical-revisionism

(4) Klein, A. (2020). How to fight Holocaust denial in social media – with the evidence of what really happened. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/how-to-fight-holocaust-denial-in-social-media-with-the-evidence-of-what-really-happened-150719

(5) Domby, A. H. (2020). The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy In Confederate Memory. University of Virginia Press.

(6) Lopez, B. (2021). How a Black high school principal was swept into a “critical race theory” maelstrom in a mostly white Texas suburb. The Texas Tribune. Retrieved from https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/18/colleyville-principal-critical-race-theory/

(7) Arango, T. (2015). A Century After Armenian Genocide, Turkey’s Denial Only Deepens. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/world/europe/turkeys-century-of-denial-about-an-armenian-genocide.html

(8) BBC News (2019). Joseph Stalin: Why so many Russians like the Soviet dictator. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47975704

(9) Park, S. N. (2019). Tokyo Keeps Defending World War II Atrocities. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/29/tokyo-keeps-defending-world-war-ii-atrocities/

(10) De Leon, D. (2021). Registered voters for 2022 Philippine elections surpass 61 million. Rappler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/comelec-report-registered-voters-2022-polls-august-23-2021

(11) CNN Philippines (2021). Young Filipinos comprise 52% of total registered voters for 2022 polls so far — Comelec. Retrieved from https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/9/11/Comelec-youth-vote-2022-national-elections.html

Published on September 20, 2021

Do You Remember the 21st Night of September?