My talk's entitled "Always revise," which I think, as hopefully we'll see, is a good and necessary thing.
This is a week heavy with memory, particularly this year, as we remember 50 years since martial law was proclaimed. But what we actually remember, or are called to remember, is itself interesting for what it reveals.
As a kind of exercise, let's look at the past with fresh eyes --as if it hasn't happened, but is, instead, unfolding right now, for us as students or teachers of journalism, or actual journalists.
We'll follow two people as they recount their experiences as it happened: a President, Ferdinand E. Marcos, and a ConCon delegate, Augusto Caesar Espiritu. Their diaries give their interpretation of events.
September 21, 1972 is a Thursday, as reporters today will tell you, it's the end of session days for Congress; back then, it was due to go on recess until it reconvened after the New Year. But the leadership realized they still had committee work to do.
The headlines of the papers tells us what's current and the buzz for the day. As for Congress, they decide to postpone adjournment until Saturday, to allow committee meetings that night and next.
For his part, Marcos is busy behind the scenes, reassuring worried allies, and lobbying for American support. He notes he finished the paperwork for martial law that night, at 8PM.
That afternoon, a big rally takes place --at Plaza Miranda. 30,000 reportedly attend. It's covered by the media.
The US Ambassador gets wind of martial law being planned, meets Marcos, and tells Washington he's convinced Marcos to postpone it for the time being.
September 22, 1972 is a Friday. The papers report that the Senate decided to junk Aquino's call for an investigation into his exposé of an Oplan Sagittarius. Three key associates, departing for abroad, are assured by Marcos there won't be martial law. But that evening? 'Ambush"!
But prior to that it's a tense-day full of the previous days' news, from exposé and counter-claims, to rallies and warnings.
Up to the point of news of the "ambush," life is still "normal." The chronology, to this day, remains confusing but suggests it was a time of adjustment and ad-hoc decision-making based on changing circumstances. After the "ambush," it seems, things begin to move fast.
The point of no return is reached, by FM's own account, before 10PM, September 22, 1972.
There is an Order of Battle to be checked off, a list of target institutions and personalities. There is paperwork to methodically release.
Here, the date has shifted from late at night, September 22, to early in the morning, September 23.
Timing of course can't be exact; few will methodically note exact times but we have a general sense of what was happening within a timeframe of a few hours. The broader public is unaware of what is going on aside from the ever-active rumor mill until 7:15PM.
Here, let's pause. Zooming out, we see a four-day story unfolding. It's culmination, for the country, is on September 23.
But at the time what was clear was martial law became an indisputable fact on September 23 for the country, which is why for the media allowed to operate, they reported it on Sunday, September 24, 1972.
But of course it wasn't all done by then. Returning to events: Marcos still had to see if his gamble would succeed. He still had to strong-arm institutions. But by Sept. 25, he could start crowing of his success.
At the heart of what would come next --nothing less than the substitution of memory of actual events, with an implanted, manufactured memory-- was a shrewd understanding of Filipino psychology.
It's only by engaging in revisionism --in reviewing, re-seeing, re-studying-- by going back and not taking the word of people for it, can we see the depth and breadth of what was accomplished. A national substitution of memory reinforces the dictator's narrative.
Which brings us to our reality, now during #ML50. The dominant narrative wasn't born yesterday.
It was born of decades of using every opportunity and every emerging technology, to bypass the generations alive during martial law and make their experience and opinions irrelevant.
We are experiencing the outcome of three decades of building a narrative so self-contained, it is bulletproof.
It is based on a truism so often repeated, we forget just how cunning it was --which you can only appreciate by actually revisiting what was actually said.
The breathtaking cynicism of the statement is actually magnified if you revisit what was actually said --and is actually practiced.
So let a person with integrity tell us what's what. Alan Robles has repeatedly said there's a fundamental difference between revisionism --which can be necessary and good...
but that the real enemy is denialism, with what it entails.
Once you zero in on denialism, you can begin to fight it; you can dissect it as a strategy, you can dismantle it as an infrastructure of deceit.
You can break denialism down into its component parts. But here, a caveat on my part...
Inevitably, denialism involves not just misusing, but actively ignoring facts. The antidote can seem to be embracing the facts and insisting on them. This is important, to be sure. But more is needed.
Here, this passage to me, suggests to writers --reporters, editorial writers, columnists-- what's needed. To tell a story. Factually, but vividly and well; where the central characters are those who adhere to high and not low standards. Only then can denialism be edged aside.
And that was my talk, an invitation to revisit what happened, review and reconsider what that tells us, and re-engage the public. Thank you!
In my column today, there's part 2 of 3 parts revisiting #ML50 and taking a new look at those events. Here are the two parts, with part 3 scheduled for September 28.
Posctscript: Cebuanos who attended/watched, do read this necessary reading, which mentions the Cebuano journalists targeted by the dictatorship: rappler.com/voices/thought…
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Quick notes on the latest Arroyo-related brouhaha. 1. The lay of the land for the ruling coalition's interesting in that neither the prexy nor veep have pocket parties of consequence: the expected stampede was into a party in coalition, but not specifically led by the prexy.
Essentially, GMA has been credited with: 1. being instrumental in the coalition that brought Duterte victory; 2. negotiating the 2022 tandem that accomplished first successful succession since 1992. The dilemma of the third wheel, politically.
Initially, she seemed frozen out in the division of the spoils; but she started becoming a fixture in the travels of the President (to wean her away from the veep? As a foil to the President's elder sister and channel to veep? Simply to keep friends close, enemies closer?)
@lucindomino There are two factors missing in your review. First what replaced parties for many reasons was national media, a process that began in 1955 with the abolition of bloc voting which was the basic building block of the national senate scheme. The erosion dated that far back. What…
@lucindomino disguised it was changing of the rules in 1987 abandoning the 8 at a time to make it 12 at a time at the instigation of premartial law losers who wanted a chance post martial law (incidentally abandoning making the senate a continuing body and also as surveys since have revealed
@lucindomino Setting aside the tendency of voters to recall max slate of 8: so what arose as opportunity was dagsag bawas). So long as national media was strong new personalities could gain national recognition altho advantage shifted to media and showbiz personalities). But by 2013 it was…
(thread) The real question we have to ask in remembering #ML50 is less how did Marcos manage to get away with it, but rather, how did so many who knew what was coming, fail to stop it? The timeline reveals to us it was like a trainwreck in slow motion. philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t…
I have my own theories from reading up and listening to those who were active then. My theory is it took 1962-76 he actually did it in a lot of stages. What Makoy had going for him: every institution that could resist had cells of Marcos minded people. In media, Doroy Valencia...
in the courts, Fred Ruiz Castro, the Ilocano generals and all the colonels pissed off with the Commission on Appointments; legions of parents freaked out by hippies, priests and bishops freaked out by Reds, ditto businessmen big and small. Against him the usual intelligentsia...