Forgetting Our Past: The Philippines’ Dictatorial Dilemma

I can easily recall my family’s bitter, stinging disappointment when Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos won the 2022 Philippine presidential election. As I anxiously checked for election updates on my phone throughout the day, I could feel my heart sink lower and lower as it became clear that he was going to win. Later, a defeated haze clouded the dinner table, made heavier by my parents’ weary sighs and long stretches of silence. Their frustration with Marcos goes much deeper than just a disagreement with his policies or political views: the then-new president was the son of the Philippines’ most infamous dictator, one whose administration they were old enough to remember and protest against in their youth. 

The Marcos regime was arguably the worst era of recent Filipino history. Following the implementation of martial law in 1972, tens of thousands of innocent Filipinos were imprisoned and brutally tortured over accusations of being rebels. Human rights NGO Amnesty International documented extensive political killings during the period. Political opposition were swiftly punished under claims of insurrection. Television was censored, favoring propaganda and cancelling any and all programs alluding to the horrors of the dictatorship.

Over a decade of martial law ultimately spurred an uprising. In 1986, Filipinos flooded the streets of the EDSA highway in protest of the Marcos regime, in what later became known as the People Power Revolution. Even the Catholic Church—one of the most prominent entities in the Philippines—loudly condemned the president’s actions, with many Archdiocese members participating in the protest. Joining the frustrated crowds of protestors, my grandparents brought my then-tween dad along with them. My grandmother recalls the sight of tanks at the edges of the sea of people crammed onto the highway. In spite of it all, she recalls the day as “masaya” (happy) knowing that their reign was finally coming to an end.

After four long days, the Marcos family fled the Philippines, marking the end of the Marcos regime. The anniversary of the People Power Revolution was made into a public holiday, serving as a reminder of the power of democracy and a warning not to forget the atrocities of the last decade. 

But the Filipino public has forgotten - or at least, forgotten enough to reelect Marcos’ Jr. less than four decades after his family was toppled from power. While Marcos Jr. (now colloquially known as BBM) isn’t inherently responsible for the actions of his predecessors, he has repeatedly shown a lack of remorse for them. BBM has cited a need for the government to “defend itself” as the reason behind his father’s implementation of martial law. He has argued that describing the senior Marcos as a dictator would be “wrong”, saying that he would learn from his father’s reign to “continue” the former president’s work. 

So how did Marcos Jr.—the face of corruption and wealth inequality in the Philippines—manage to win by a landslide in 2022?

The answer largely lies in the rampant misinformation campaign launched prior to the elections, primarily on social media. With regards to Facebook usage, the Philippines ranks sixth in highest consumption globally, making them a prime target for the mass spread of online misinformation. One post, claiming that nobody was arrested during the martial law period, had reached 187 million views by the beginning of the election period in early 2022. That’s more views than the entire Filipino population. 

Some of these manufactured posts focus on glorifying the aesthetics and supposedly simpler lifestyle of the “golden era” under Marcos Sr.’s reign. Others portray the former president as a “visionary leader”, subtly urging the audience to favor the family and support BBM in the run for presidency. Many posts reinforce the idea of justice and equality, claiming that Marcos Sr.’s presidency helped hardworking, “good citizens” to succeed. The idea that his leadership allowed people to pull themselves up by the bootstraps is an alluring concept: when considering the economic conditions of the Philippines, this enticing rhetoric is a key factor to the success of this rosy reimagining of history. Meanwhile, BBM has yet to acknowledge the billions of dollars the Marcos family stole from government coffers during their reign. His capitalization of people’s hopes for better lives is insultingly ironic.

I’ve seen the bewildering effects of online misinformation firsthand: just recently, a Grab driver in Manila conspiratorially mentioned to me that Marcos Jr. was secretly affiliated with the political party who fueled his own family’s exile. 

Posts like these are further fueled by the presence of so-called “troll farms”, who are essentially hired to script and disseminate misinformation. One alleged hired troll asserted that his team was asked to find abandoned Facebook accounts to buy and use as vessels to spread pro-Marcos “propaganda”. He explained that to garner engagement, his team would “make the accounts look normal” by posting popular, non-political content. Come election season, politicians would buy these accounts and use them to post content in support of their administration.

Online misinformation was not the only factor in propelling the popularity of Marcos Jr. The Department of Education faced backlash recently due to a proposed change in the Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) core curriculum. The proposed revision would change the phrase “Diktadurang Marcos” (Dictator Marcos) to just “Diktadura” (Dictator) in chapters expanding on the history of the Marcos administration and martial law. Revisions to historical education are especially impactful given that they are the primary avenue through which individuals learn about the period: as the Philippines now goes on almost fifty years since the implementation of martial law, many Filipinos are now too young to remember the atrocities firsthand. The intent behind this decision is clear: to whitewash the history of the Marcos family. While relatively minor, it’s changes like these—changes that divorce the Marcos name from the atrocities of the period—that exacerbate the historical amnesia which allowed them to return to power. 

Optimistically, various groups have been working to address the problem in hopes of slowing the spread of false information. #FactsFirstPH has been a prominent coalition of over a hundred organizations that work to promote truthfulness and debunk misinformation online. The organization, which includes institutions such as the Philippine Bar Association, branches of the Catholic Church, and the University of the Philippines, is split into four subgroups. The fact-checking sector is tasked with verifying claims that have gained traction online, while the mesh sector focuses on translating and spreading fact-checks across the Philippines. Meanwhile, the research sector identifies disinformation factors online whilst the accountability sector emphasizes legal consequences for online disinformation. 

Misinformation in the classroom is a lot harder to address. However, in a promising move, various teachers’ coalitions have voiced their criticism of historical revisionism in social studies classes. The Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) slammed the Department of Education for removing the Marcos name from history textbooks, saying that the move was “a clear strategy of the current administration to rehabilitate the dark history of the Marcos family” and “a blatant example of disinformation”. Similarly, a representative of the Alliance for Concerned Teachers denounced the decision, stating that they “cannot allow the erasure of history and the distortion of truth”. 

The presence of social media in our lives will only become more ubiquitous, and a global rise in online disinformation is already happening. Though the Philippines has a long way to go in eradicating false information, steps like these are slowly leading the nation to the right path. Truthful, accurate information about our history is how we prevent ourselves from making the same mistakes. From the Nazi book burnings to the recent book bans in U.S. public schools, the suppression of facts has often served as a troubling warning sign of societal unrest. The astounding success of these campaigns in the Philippines epitomizes the danger of misinformation—the suppression of facts is a very slippery slope to their complete erasure from our collective consciousness. Regardless of historical or cultural context, one thing is clear: nothing good comes from forgetting our past.