Groups decry attempts to distort historical facts on martial law
By Nuel M. Bacarra
The Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) hit Senate Bill 452 authored by Sen. Robinhood Padilla to “distort” historical facts on Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law by declaring September 21, its anniversary of declaration, as special non-working holiday to be known as “Unsung Heroes Day.”
Bonifacio Ilagan, SELDA spokesperson, said Padilla ”…willfully distorts history’s damning judgment of the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines and turn the infamous day of the martial law declaration into a national holiday honoring ‘unsung heroes,’ the ‘unsung heroes’ being the state security forces that actually had their hands bloodied in rampage of human rights violations.”
“We all know of course, that as Marcos Sr. was about to end his second and last constitutional term, he declared martial law to perpetuate himself in power, using the so-called communist threat as a convenient pretext,” Ilagan added.
Earlier, House Deputy Minority leader and ACT (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) Party-list Rep. France Castro also criticized the memorandum of Department of Education (DepEd) through its Bureau of Curriculum Development that mandated to change the “Dikatadurang Marcos” (Marcos Dictatorship) to just “Diktadura” (Dictatorship) in Grade 6 Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) curriculum.
“The decision to remove ‘Marcos’ from the term ‘Diktadurang Marcos’ is a clear revision of history and an insult to the countless victims of human rights abuses and atrocities committed during the martial law period,” Castro said.
Castro also invoked Section 27 of Republic Act 10368 that mandates the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission that coordination and collaboration should be properly exercised with DepED to ensure the teaching of martial law atrocities and the lives of the victims are part of the basic, secondary and tertiary education curricula.
Castro added, “The move to eliminate the name ‘Marcos’ from the ‘Diktadurang Marcos’ is a blatant attempt to whitewash the crimes and atrocities committed under his regime.”
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) criticized as well the Marcos Jr. government on its attempt at “rebranding” saying, “The current regime wants to make sure the Marcos name is not associated with negative images of human rights violations, tyranny, power-grab and military rule.”
BAYAN added that the effort to distort historical facts in the country “points to an apparent long term plan to entrench the Marcoses in the highest positions of governments, even after the term of Marcos Jr. has ended.”
“The steady drive to rewrite history serves a long term agenda for staying in power,” BAYAN said. #
