BLURRY LENSES: THE CONSTANT DISTORTION OF OUR HISTORY

|| Airish Jane Lizaso

Open your eyes. Close them, then repeat. Now, you are squinting your eyes. Try rubbing it with your fingers. Did anything change?

You often encounter different perspectives from the books you read and the current content of the television news that makes you look twice and check your vision. Just like when the late dictator becomes a patriot and is buried in the cemetery of heroes? Is it fantasy, or is your sight just cloudy? The picture you are looking at is not hazy. Damaged lenses are just coming in between the image and your eyes.

We need to identify the causes and roots of the deterioration in perception. It would be best if people pinpoint the agents that ruin and create fissures in the lenses of our history.

Glaring Personalities

One of the factors that manipulate history is the people who shine like rays of the sun due to their popularity. Not just in artistry but also in politics, media, and the internet. Describing them as popular does not mean something is pleasant or acceptable, but it may also be an offensive or ugly image.

First in line is the current senator, a member of the infamous Marcos Family and sister of the current president, Imee Marcos. She is known for credit-grabbing things such as being the principal author of the law or producing films and projects. Recently, Manila Bulletin reported her claim that the “Nutribun” was a project of her father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., where in fact, it is a feeding program developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This issue circulated on television and online platforms, which is alarming due to its straight revision of what happened.

Adding to the list of personalities is Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., who filed a bill to change Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Ferdinand Marcos International Airport due to his claim that the airport was established during the presidency of Marcos Sr. However, the airport was built in 1953 and 1961, while Marcos Sr. started his term in 1965. Therefore, it was not constructed during his term. These personages influence citizens and somehow affect their views, especially on the events during the Martial Law era. Their blinding popularity can sway one’s opinion, which can bend the truth. Hence, we should learn how to cover our lenses when there is a flaring light before us to get a better view of things.

Foggy Beliefs

Haze also affects the lens, which blurs vision. Something could gain credibility as long as our belief gets clouded. Several fallacious conceptions are circulating through mediums such as the internet and the mouths of people surrounding us.

The “Golden Era” is one of the misconceptions that is famous amongst Filipinos. James K. Boyce debunked this in his work “The Political Economy Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era.” He compared the GDP before and during the terms of Marcos Sr. He showed that the Philippine GDP decreased from $257 in his first term to $244 in his second term and $214 during Martial Law. Moreover, foreign debt skyrocketed from $60 million to $28.3 billion.

“It is safe and quiet during Martial Law” is one of the suppositions that everyone has already heard. Yet, based on the report of Amnesty International, there are almost 70,000 political prisoners, 34,000 tortured, 3,240 reported as killed, and 3,000 Desaparecidos, or the people who were reported missing during the Martial Law

“The Marcoses’ wealth originated from Tallano gold. They did not steal from the government” is also a classic line of people who favor Marcoses. So why is there ill-gotten wealth that was retrieved if the family did not steal? According to the Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG), at least P172 billion was recovered from the Marcoses. In 2018, Imelda Marcos, wife of the late dictator, was convicted of seven counts of graft for transferring about $200 million to Swiss foundations in the 1970s. The Supreme Court of the Philippines and Switzerland both confirmed that the family is thieves.

The appearance of mist can lead to cloudy lenses. These can alter our sentiments about certain things and events. It is better to clear up this mist to prevent foggy beliefs from interfering with or replacing the truth.

Damaging Platforms

When we drop our lenses into a concrete platform, they can cause fissures and crack. In the worst-case scenario, the lenses may break.

The Philippines, for the 6th year straight, dominated the world for time spent using social media. Based on the We Are Social and Hootsuite, Filipinos spend an average of 4 hours and 15 minutes every day on social media. It makes us more prone to disinformation, which is rampant in the virtual world. Disinformation is spreading like a wildfire across different platforms. Based on the reports of Pulse Asia, the platforms Filipinos use are Facebook (99%), YouTube (57%), TikTok (17%), Instagram (14%), and Twitter (8%). Fake news peddlers and partisan individuals use these platforms to disseminate malicious and white-washed details of the Marcos regime.

Certain personalities have utilized these platforms to spread misleading information. The presence of online trolls, whose mission is to spread lies favorable to people who hired them, manipulate political discourse, and alter public opinion, intensifies the widespread escalation of false data, making the Marcoses look pleasing.

In the film industry, the controversial “Maid in Malacañang,” directed by Daryl Yap, a known individual, who favors the Marcoses, utilized the film to inconspicuously create his version of history. The heated issues of the Mahjong scene and constituents’ attack on Malacañang were said to be fictitious by the historians and even the people involved in the real event. That is why it is not shocking that one of the casts of this film labeled history as “tsimis” or gossip.

Constant clash of lenses with giant and solid platforms can cause fractures, modifying the accurate accounts to favor oppressive individuals. We must learn to protect our lenses against the blow of a sturdy platform.

Wiping The Lenses

Combating the continuous distortion in our history can be difficult, especially when the other side has already reached a deep level of damage in our lenses. The others who we are trying to inform that their lenses are blurry can fight back and reject the help we are trying to give. But we must fight for people who stood up and sacrificed for the country.

Various hands of Martial Law survivors, journalists, students, and citizens are working together to jab back against the evident distortion of the dark history of our country. Several steps were taken such as creating a digital muse um and websites that preserves and protects data retrieved during the Martial Law era. The rise of organizations is also present to give counter-narratives against malicious information.

Past is past, but these dark memories will not be forgotten. We can bury the dictator, not the lessons and effects of tyranny. The decade of denying crimes and unrepentance is unacceptable. We cannot move on by letting those mist cloud our vision. Be vigilant and critical in identifying stories and information. Let us stand against the distortion of the lenses that help us see and frees us. <w>