Revisionism: thinking 1972-1986 was Aquino vs. Marcos when it was The Filipino People vs. Marcos. Revisionism makes possible another erasure: the repudiation of Marcos-ism not just in 1986 but in 2001 and 2010. It's why #ABSCBNFranchiseRenewal had to fail.
quezon.ph/2010/02/11/the…
quezon.ph/2010/02/11/the…
Let me explain. The "Constitutional Authoritarianism" of Marcos failed, whatever its pretenses to offering an alternative between the "chaos" of democracy and the danger of Communism; it failed not least because Marcos was in its for himself and his friends, and plagiarized...
it's institutions from the Japanese Occupation era (just as critics of the Reds claim its founding literature was heavily borrowed too). Eventually the Filipino people remembered who they were and united to throw out the dictator and his friends. As happens in so many...
countries, efforts at a restoration took place. As early as 1992, it was already electorally possible (Danding Cojuangco and Imelda Marcos split the Loyalist vote which could have won). But however much the Marcoses could reclaim their home turf and reenter national politics...
and however much the alumni of the dictatorship (as I'd pointed out, folks ranging from Gordon to the Aguilars --the other, professionally political, half of the Villars-- and so on) gravitated to one party, undemocratic rule, the public would remember who it was from time...
to time. But the restoration would always fail --spectacularly so in Ferdinand Jr. who lost to another widow and so spoiled his chances at restoration (it was a Marcos Loyalist who enlightened me on this, speaking with contempt on how BBM had every advantage and blew it). But...
there is more to this restoration than the Marcoses. It is the project of the political class, or its more thinking parts, at least: to achieve a government free of public opinion, which can only thrive in a nationally-elected and thus nationally-responsible system of election...
which is why senators and the senate tend to pass reform legislation and be prompt about acknowleding public opinion (as national officials) and who can thus serve as a check and balance to presidents, while the House, the epitome of localness, repeatedly can ignore public...
opinion. This is why unicameralism and parliamentary shifts keep being proposed, to eliminate public opinion as a factor that limits political ambitions, or the tayo-tayo our neighbors in Malaysia politically enjoy and our politicians deeply envy. But for this to happen, a...
systematic dismantling of post-1986 institutions and 1935 onwards republic traditions has to take place, while revisionism is promoted to take the place of actual education. The combined effects of this reduces the public to its native servility and a new indifference even as...
institutions such as academe, the law, the press, even the military, are subverted one by one and defanged. Because so long as we have national elections on a fixed schedule, there is always the risk that the restoration won't be permanent, and can be reversed.
