Can history be revised? Will Filipinos allow history to be revised?
In his campaign speeches, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong”Marcos Jr. (BBM) has been announcing his “mission” for the nation to “heal, unite for progress, and change”, making a call for the people to “Move on!”
With that premise, BBM clearly intends to “rectify” what he alleges to be “lies” hurled at the Marcos family.
And BBM is denying any culpability.
How can anyone refute official records that have established the truth regarding the national economic crisis and widespread poverty that happened during the Marcos era, including the repression of civil rights especially free speech, and the rise in criminality despite the Dictator’s iron-fisted regime?
How can anyone debunk local and international groups’ findings on the “unlawfully-acquired” wealth by the Marcoses that has yet to be fully returned to the Filipino people?
Local and international court decisions, and independent investigations have documented how the Marcoses and their cronies amassed an estimated $10 billion dollars (or P500 billion) in ill-gotten wealth — of which the government has recovered only a fraction, around P170 billion, by 2018.
This attempt now to reinstate the Marcoses in Malacanang through the 2022 presidential elections is like a referendum of the collective memory of the Filipino people.
What happened during the Marcos’ Martial Rule is recorded in international media and other independent sources of data — empirical proof that “what happened has happened.”
In his book From Third World to First, former Singapore Prime Minister and statesman Lee Kuan Yew wrote about building Singapore’s ties with the Philippines, the events which followed the assassination of Sen. Ninoy Aquino in 1983, and the international outrage that resulted in foreign banks blocking all loans to the Philippines.
Lee Kwan Yew recalled that in the 1950s and 1960s, the Philippines was the most developed country in Southeast Asia because America had been generous in rehabilitating the country after the war.
In addition, he said he felt sorry for the Philippines’ apparent brain drain. “Filipinos had to leave their country for jobs abroad beneath their level of education.”
Lee Kwan Yew described the Filipino people: “It is a soft, forgiving culture. Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics.”
At present, Filipinos are faced with historical revisionists who are actively tampering with facts and data to suit their politicos’ biases, and whitewash personal culpability in the deconstruction and revision of the notorious 14-year-dictatorship of Marcos.
The indifference of the younger generation who did not experience the excesses and horrors of Martial Law is played out in the obtrusive social media virtual reality, replete with ready ‘fake news’ that they may have referred to as their instant reality – their “context”.
It seems the responsibility to keep the integrity of our genuine history clearly rests on the survivors of Marcos’ Martial Law — those of us who have lived through the mid-1920s or the 1980s, those of us now in our 40s through the 90s.
Those of us who care that History must not repeat itself, we must devise and design active ways to inculcate values and principles above the present needs and wants of the younger generation.
The best way is to always visibly and audibly, strongly oppose corrupt and immoral practices in present-day government.
NEVER AGAIN!
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Author’s email: [email protected]
