Manuel L. Quezon III Profile picture
Sep 21 40 tweets 14 min read
Just finished my talk for Cebu's Press Freedom Week. It was livestreamed here: facebook.com/cebucaritascci… #ML50 Image
My talk's entitled "Always revise," which I think, as hopefully we'll see, is a good and necessary thing. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
That afternoon, a big rally takes place --at Plaza Miranda. 30,000 reportedly attend. It's covered by the media. Image
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. Image
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"! Image
But prior to that it's a tense-day full of the previous days' news, from exposé and counter-claims, to rallies and warnings. Image
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. Image
The point of no return is reached, by FM's own account, before 10PM, September 22, 1972. Image
There is an Order of Battle to be checked off, a list of target institutions and personalities. There is paperwork to methodically release. Image
Here, the date has shifted from late at night, September 22, to early in the morning, September 23. Image
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. Image
Here, let's pause. Zooming out, we see a four-day story unfolding. It's culmination, for the country, is on September 23. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
But a review of the sources will help reveal that substitution. So please visit: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… Image
Which brings us to our reality, now during #ML50. The dominant narrative wasn't born yesterday. Image
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. Image
We are experiencing the outcome of three decades of building a narrative so self-contained, it is bulletproof. Image
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. Image
The breathtaking cynicism of the statement is actually magnified if you revisit what was actually said --and is actually practiced. Image
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... Image
but that the real enemy is denialism, with what it entails. Image
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. Image
You can break denialism down into its component parts. But here, a caveat on my part... Image
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. Image
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. Image
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! Image
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. ImageImage
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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More from @mlq3

Sep 23
(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… Image
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...
Read 8 tweets
Sep 22
#ML50 What was happening 50 years ago today. September 23, 1972 the real date of martial law. From the comprehensive timeline available in the #PhilippineDiaryProject: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… (part 1) ImageImageImageImage
#ML50 What was happening 50 years ago today. September 23, 1972 the real date of martial law. From the comprehensive timeline available in the #PhilippineDiaryProject: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… (part 2) ImageImageImageImage
#ML50 What was happening 50 years ago today. September 23, 1972 the real date of martial law. From the comprehensive timeline available in the #PhilippineDiaryProject: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… (part 3) ImageImageImageImage
Read 20 tweets
Sep 21
#ML50 Interviewed by the late Cynthia Sycip, the late Teodoro M. Locsin recounted his arrest early in the morning of September 23, 1972: Image
#ML50 Interviewed by the late Cynthia Sycip, the late Chino Roces reflected on his arrest on September 23, 1972: Image
#ML50 interviewed by the late Cynthia Sycip, the late broadcaster Jose Mari Velez recounted his arrest early in the morning of September 23, 1972: ImageImage
Read 6 tweets
Sep 21
#ML50 What was happening 50 years ago today. September 22, 1972 was a truly eventful day when martial law began to be implemented. From the comprehensive timeline available in the #PhilippineDiaryProject: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… (part 1) ImageImageImageImage
#ML50 What was happening 50 years ago today. September 22, 1972 was a truly eventful day when martial law began to be implemented. From the comprehensive timeline available in the #PhilippineDiaryProject: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… (part 2) ImageImageImageImage
#ML50 What was happening 50 years ago today. September 22, 1972 was a truly eventful day when martial law began to be implemented. From the comprehensive timeline available in the #PhilippineDiaryProject: philippinediaryproject.com/2021/08/27/a-t… (part 3) ImageImageImageImage
Read 15 tweets
Sep 21
Makes for interesting listening together with some additional things, a thread. So here's an interesting thing to watch and listen to.
I myself have a theory that the march was itself one that had its origins during the Japanese Occupation.
But equally interesting is how, once disgraced, the song made a manufactured comeback for campaign purposes, a years-long process I documented through this playlist: see the scope of the revival. youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Read 5 tweets
Sep 21
Personally I do consider the 1935 Constitution the best one we've ever had. One thing that went for it: Marcos had to mount a self-coup and invent "people's assemblies" to get around it and junk it to make way for a constitution he wrote for himself.
Consider this: Congress had to be complicit, by accepting his bribe for its members to be automatic members of the Interim National Assembly his 1973 Constitution would create. The Constitutional Convention delegates had to be complicit, by accepting seats in the Interim Assembly
on condition they voted to approve the draft 1973 Charter. The Supreme Court, which, in response to the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in 1971, reserved for itself the right to review the factual basis for martial law, had to be complicit in accepting Marcos's condition
Read 5 tweets

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