Once again, it’s the anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law. As per tradition, our feeds are littered with statements which reinforce that, yes, the late Ferdinand Marcos was a d*ck, he isn’t a hero, and here are the facts to prove it.
But despite the overwhelming consensus that Marcos was an a*hole, there is also a great majority who believe that he wasn’t. In fact, a bill declaring a Marcos holiday had just been passed. The irony that the Philippines also has a day that celebrates his downfall is not lost on us.
Now, we’re not sure if this is latest news is proof that the Marcos fanbase is growing, or if this is just another downside of social media giving a voice to everyone.
But what’s truly baffling is the sheer commitment of fans that swear Marcos is just a misunderstood puppy who historians like to bully. God forbid should these historians, who have spent their lives studying history, become more credible than vloggers who dance to budots on the daily.
But one good look at history tells us that every country has its own version of conspiracy nutjobs. You have Europe with its Holocaust deniers and the flat-earthers from the US, for example.
If you’re unaware, flat-earthers are people who somehow believe that the governments of the world are playing the most expensive prank on humankind. They think that the billions of funding thrown at developing satellites and space explorations are done for sh*ts and giggles.
Fortunately, we don’t see many Filipino flat-earthers (thank god). It’s comforting to know that, despite the atrocious amount of fake news that we fall for, we’re still aware that yes, the Earth is a sphere and that the Moon landing was not shot in a studio.
But once again, even with the relative absence of Filipino flat-earthers, history dictates that every society needs a population that gets high on conspiracy theories. That’s where Marcos apologists come in. In a way, they could be direct cousins of each other.
They share one common trait: that despite the existence of overwhelming evidence: thousands of reports, pending legal cases, eyewitness statements, studies both local and international, they still somehow find reasons to, not only disbelieve a common truth, but also have the energy to dispute said truth.
They sincerely believe that millions of people from all walks of life, reputable professors, historians, lawmakers, researchers, activists who got victimized, random lola/lolos on the street, only exist to troll and mislead them.
I’m all for questioning everything that we read. Just because media giant A published a headline doesn’t mean we no longer need to delve into the article for context. Or that we won’t open Google to double-check if what they said was true.
But the conspiracy nut in us needs to have limits. The Marcos regime is not a barangay tsismis or a blind item we see on the tabloids. 34,000 people didn’t randomly torture themselves. Malacañang didn’t simply flush $10 billion down the toilet. $683 million of ill-gotten wealth were not just confiscated out of the blue.
Our political stance doesn’t change actual facts, especially when they’re staring us right in the face.
