BLEEDING THROUGH
PLASTERED PASTS In what can be described as one of the most egregious failings of this generation, social media platforms saw a surge of posts celebrating the martial law years under former President Ferdinand Marcos on the anniversary of its declaration. This is just one among the many schemes of the pro-Marcos movement to rewrite history in their favor for the upcoming national elections, and must be met with skepticism and vigilance. To be clear, The Leaf is not against having differences in opinion as these allow for meaningful discussion to occur. it will not, however, tolerate the proliferation of misinformation through the erroneous interpretation of facts and historical revision. Take for example the anticommunist rhetoric parroted by its supporters—that without martial law, the country would have been overrun by the Communist Party of the Philippines. In truth, the rise in insurgency was a response to the already-growing public dissatisfaction with the government during Marcos’s second term. This led to the formation of the Muslim Independence Movement, which preceded the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Communist groups were merely a scapegoat for Marcos as he had started planning for martial law well before any threats necessitated it. Vera Files reported that he tasked then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile with studying the extent of presidential powers granted by the 1935 Constitution just months
after his re-election. In 1986, Enrile himself confessed that the drive-by assassination attempt against him, which was used as the ultimate reason for declaring martial law, was staged.
of the regime’s human rights violations as leftist propaganda. Imagine trying to explain a physics problem to a classmate who refuses to look at the numbers.
Or what about the claim that it ushered in the “golden age” of the Philippines, citing a flourishing economy and infrastructures built that supposedly put us on par with developed countries. This is blatantly false, as it overlooks the over $26-billion debt in which Marcos had sunk the country by the time he was ousted. Years of foreign loans subjected to mismanagement and corruption by the administration forced the president to declare bankruptcy and seek debt moratorium in 1983.
Ironically, in this age of information, fake news runs rampant. Thus, you must take it upon yourself to verify claims and call out misinformation. No, Marcos did not gain his wealth from some respectable source, most of it was embezzled. No, primary sources are not necessarily more reliable than secondary ones, they just describe the relationship between the information and the source. And no, not all sources that contradict your opinions were paid off by the opposition.
Furthermore, the standards of living sank across the board during the dictatorship. Data from the Martial Law Museum show that from the time Marcos took office in 1965 to his eviction, the percentage of Filipinos living below the poverty line rose from 40% to 60%. For every ₱100 that skilled workers earned in 1962, they only earned ₱28 in 1985; unskilled workers earned even less. Its effects were worsened by the drastic increase in the prices of goods. From a baseline of ₱100 in 1978, prices reached ₱350 in 1986. Clearly, these golden years were nothing more than fool’s gold. And of course, you see the consistent arguments that go, “you were not alive during that time” or “my grandparents said their lives were peaceful.” These statements are shallow since they dismiss decades of literature on and first-hand accounts
But most importantly, remember that no degree of economic growth, even exaggerated, can ever justify the censorship, arrest, and slaughter of those who sought to speak. The sheer inhumanity with which Marcos has stained the pages of our past makes him undeserving of his burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Just as those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, so are those who fall victim to one that has been twisted. Ferdinand Marcos is not the hero others make him out to be. To celebrate martial law under the dictator’s regime is to spit in the faces of countless corpses and empty graves that haunt the Marcos Era.
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