Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office undersecretary Manuel Quezon III should know that the issue is not about the denial or an attempt to distort martial law, but on how we should perceive and assess that historical sequel in our history. Quezon is right that history cannot tell lies, but when one perceives and interprets history to suit his interest, he distorts and tells a lie about it. When carried out consciously and systematically, that version now becomes propaganda.
Even the implementor of martial law who became the anointed candidate of the woman who claimed to have liberated this downtrodden country from the clutches of the so-called “dictatorship,” would not deny that it was imposed, and that Fidel Ramos even sought to enforce and implement it as head of the Philippine Constabulary. For whatever Quezon would say, the imposition was upheld as legal and constitutional by the Supreme Court.
Martial law can never be judged by one individual, more so by a group seeking to pursue their own interests, or by an administration seeking to keep itself in power. This will be done by the people collectively judging the past. It is their recollection of the past, whether good or bad, that allows them to compare their present condition today to objectively assess martial law, vis-à-vis what it has accomplished to our people. There is no other way to distort the so-called “Marcos regime” but to do even better. It is the ability of a leader to bring about peace and security, and to elevate his country to a higher level of development. This in turn will be used as benchmark to say that the country experienced higher glory and prosperity.
It is on what it has accomplished where it will be positively judged by history, and by that, we are referring to the collective perception of the people. This government cannot keep on blaming the past, as its easy way to avoid the verdict of history. It would only expose itself as engaged in a vile propaganda and worse, in a systematic attempt to evade the truth that now holds the record of being the most incompetent and corrupt government this country ever had. This, as it proclaims itself as being guided by “tuwid na daan!”
History can never be judged by a handful of self-righteous hypocrites blindly following the barbaric dictum that history is always written by the victors. This distortion or maybe perception of history explains why there has been a proliferation of books and articles claiming to narrate the “untold” or “unwritten” life or history of leaders. They always assume that he who can capture the widest audience is telling the truth.
But it is not for those who would attempt to present their version of history that determines whether that chapter in our history is good or bad. It is, rather, the people whose lives were touched and affected, for only then would they be able to compare the past with the present. There is always a national psyche or anima that is attributed to that sequel in our nationhood. That national psyche is independent from our motivation and interest, but common and integral on how we could narrate how far we have advanced as a nation.
Even the interpretation of progress can be subjected to perception. For instance, it is not on the increase in GNP or investment poured in by the monopoly capitalists into the casino economy, or in the number of business establishments that sprouted and their huge profits, but on how the leader was able to generate employment for our people, on how the gap between the rich and the poor was narrowed down, on how the purchasing power of the wage earners was increased, and on how their welfare was improved.
Admittedly, our present day GNP, investment, number of business establishments and profit have increased more than four times from the time of the Marcos administration. Yet, our people still consider his administration the best because he was successful in making sure they would be able to participate in that achievement to share its fruits. Their having to participate in our nation building was not by way of intangible or bogus freedom like giving them their right to vote, their right to go to church, or to badmouth their political enemies, but to savor what it means to have a better standard of living, enjoy the benefits of a welfare government concerned on what it could do in return for their sacrifices.
Despite the claim by this unabashedly hypocritical government that it was, the so-called freedom and democracy restored by Corazon Aquino in 1986, and calling it as her legacy, with the son PNoy vilely equating that as an achievement to fill up the hollow record of not having accomplished anything, is fraud of the highest order. The oligarchy, the US imperialists and supported by their mongrels from the Left have openly declared that they would not allow the return of any of the Marcoses. Did they not reconsider that such declaration is a grave contradiction to their proclamation of being the guardians of our freedom and democracy? Their campaign to stop the candidacy of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is symptomatic of their intolerance to anybody who might oppose their idea, unless they now would concede that what they bequeathed to us is freedom that revolves solely within circle of the ruling wealthy class.
Their attempt to stop the candidacy of Bongbong Marcos betrays the truth that this yellow and servile government of the US imperialist is as intolerant as the ISIS, and would do everything to depict the Marcos administration as a dark chapter in our history in defiance of the collective judgment of our people that continues to recall and honor him of what he accomplished. Martial law may have its own lapses, but those lapses pertained to those who initiated violence to impose their will upon the people. It can never be said that martial law was imposed by President Marcos without any reason, or that the declaration by the Supreme Court had no factual basis or constitutional basis.
From the presidential down to the vice presidential candidates, all are talking about the candidacy of Bongbong, and whether for or against him, is telling why they are hitting him hard. We need not ask why, but the reason is obvious. Aside from the black propaganda, they keep on digging into the past which he logically answered: that the past is not the issue, but the present, and it is only by looking forward that this nation can move on. They persist in demanding from him the return of the so-called ill-gotten wealth when they have already gotten everything without obtaining a single conviction against any of those they accused of having amassed the so-called ill-gotten wealth, and continue to demand an apology for the alleged sins of his father, which if true cannot be inherited by the son, a postulate rooted both on logic and legality.