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Revisionism most foul
YESTERDAY was the 44th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the country. The “veterans” and survivors of this dark chapter in our history encourage the youth – the so-called millennials – to study and know the brutal and despicable years of the Marcos dictatorship. Learning our bitter past is the best defense against a repeat of such tyrannical rule.
There are many important lessons that the youth must learn from our deplorable experience with martial rule, like the power of the people to end tyranny. It is saddening that today’s youth feel so detached from the real events and ravages brought by martial law to the point that some of them say that it was the best time of the country. Young people are thus urged to study history without the goggles of revisionism. Get to know Edgar Jopson, Lean Alejandro, Eman Lacaba and so many other youths of the time for whom the phrase “only in militant struggle does the best in the youth emerge” rings true.
The young should know, too, that political opposition figures were imprisoned during martial law. Scores of labor leaders, farmers, church people, women, and lawyers, together with the outspoken student leaders found themselves on the run from the dreaded Philippine Constabulary. Many were arrested, tortured and killed. Those who were able to flee took to the hills and joined the New People’s Army.
There is so much misinformation and historical revisionism especially in this terror-laden page of our country’s history. These are aimed to erase the stench of blood and the long list of atrocities and human rights violations perpetrated by Marcos’ martial law.
Clearly, the Marcoses and their minions are hell-bent on erasing their grave crimes against the people. To honor the collective memory of the thousands of martial law victims, we should not allow the revisionists to succeed in re-writing our history.
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