The rush to purchase books documenting Marcos’ damaging 21-year reign comes as his son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., assumes workplace after a landslide election victory in May.
Marcos Jr. has by no means publicly acknowledged or apologized for the human rights abuses, corruption and theft that historians say occurred below his father’s management.
And there are fears that now he’s in energy, he’ll attempt to rewrite historical past.
Journalist Raissa Robles, the creator of “Marcos Martial Law: Never Again,” stated after Marcos Jr.’s win she acquired emails from readers all around the world with requests to reprint the detailed dive on the victims of martial regulation.
“The e-book worth had practically doubled and but the folks had been shopping for the e-book by batches. They weren’t simply shopping for one or two. They had been shopping for 5 or 10 at a time,” Robles stated.
The essential trigger for concern got here from the president himself.
Back in 2020, when Marcos Jr. was making ready to run for president, he made clear a want to revise textbooks that documented his dad or mum’s corrupt and brutal regime.
“We have been calling for that for years,” Marco Jr. stated in a discussion board hosted by the National Press Club, as he accused these in energy since his father’s demise of “instructing kids lies.”
Human rights teams say through the Marcos regime from 1965 to 1986 tens of 1000’s of individuals had been imprisoned, tortured or killed for perceived or actual criticism of the federal government. Marcos Sr., who died in exile in 1989, and his spouse, Imelda, 93, had been additionally discovered responsible of widespread corruption together with stealing an estimated $10 billion of public cash.
The household has repeatedly denied utilizing state funds for his or her private use — a declare challenged in a number of court docket instances.
CNN reached out to the brand new Marcos authorities for remark however has not acquired a response.
Demand surges for books on the Marcos regime
Marcos Jr. has beforehand requested “the world” to evaluate him by his actions, not by his household’s previous. But throughout his inauguration speech on June 30, he praised his father, the late dictator, saying he had achieved rather more than earlier administrations since gaining independence in 1946.
“He bought it performed. Sometimes with wanted assist, generally with out. So will or not it’s together with his son — you’ll get no excuses from me,” he stated.
During his speech, he additionally touched on the difficulty of revising studying supplies in colleges, however stated he wasn’t speaking about historical past.
“What we educate in our colleges, the supplies used, should be retaught. I’m not speaking about historical past, I’m speaking concerning the fundamentals, the sciences, sharpening theoretical aptitude and imparting vocational abilities,” he stated.
But these assurances ring hole for individuals who suffered below his father’s dictatorship, and others who’re skeptical of the brand new Marcos management.
One indication of that’s by e-book gross sales.
Almira Manduriao, head of promoting on the Ateneo de Manila University’s publishing press, stated the frenzy for Philippine historical past books started quickly after Marcos Jr. gained the May 9 election.
“People had been abruptly fearful that literature crucial of the dictatorship could be banned,” Manduriao stated. “Hence, the necessity to purchase and safeguard the books (when) they nonetheless can.”
At least 10 titles masking martial regulation and the darkish previous of the Marcos dictatorship stay offered out on the college press, in accordance with Manduriao.
Some of the bestsellers on the campus bookshop had been in reprint — particularly “Some Are Smarter than Others: The History of Marcos’ Crony Capitalism” by Ricardo Manapat, “The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos” by Primitivo Mijares and “Canal de la Reina” by Liwayway Arceo Bautista.
On May 11, Adarna House, a publishing home based by Philippine artist Virgilo Almario, supplied a 20% low cost on a #NeverAgain Bundle of 5 e-book titles concerning the Marcos regime.
In the times that adopted, gross sales went by the roof and the pre-order waitlist grew, and the corporate introduced it’d take as a lot as eight weeks for orders to be delivered.
The supply was successful with prospects, nevertheless it additionally attracted the eye of the federal government.
Alex Paul Monteagudo, director basic of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, accused Adarna House of “radicalizing Filipino kids.”
“The Adarna Publishing House revealed these books and they’re now on sale to subtly radicalize the Filipino kids in opposition to our authorities, now!” he wrote on his official Facebook web page on May 17.
Monteagudo stated within the put up that when subjects resembling martial regulation and the People Power revolution — a nationwide rebellion that overthrew the Marcos regime in 1986 — are taught in colleges, it’ll “plant seeds of hatred and dissent within the minds of those kids.”
Adarna House declined CNN’s request for touch upon the claims.
One of Adarna’s prospects, Vanessa Louie Cabacungan-Samaniego, who lives and works in Hong Kong, put in a bunch order for round a dozen Filipinos within the metropolis for books on the Marcos dictatorship.
She advised CNN she worries the election will permit the Marcos political clan to “work to clear their title and revise historical past books or goal the media.”
“Buying books to teach ourselves and the subsequent era is simply our small option to struggle in opposition to injustices,” she stated, when the primary batch of orders was delivered in June.
Preserving the reality
In current years, politicians and authorities officers have demonized publishers and journalists, denouncing their credibility on social media and in public statements.
The day earlier than Marcos Jr. took workplace, Nobel laureate Maria Ressa stated the federal government had ordered her information group, Rappler, to close down.She stated she’d been repeatedly harassed over the previous six years and focused by authorized motion over alleged libel, tax evasion and violation of overseas media possession guidelines.
“This is intimidation. These are political ways. We refuse to succumb to them,” she stated.
Michael Pante, a historical past professor on the Ateneo de Manila University, stated he feared Marcos Jr. would proceed former President Rodrigo Duterte’s marketing campaign to delegitimize the work of historians, lecturers and journalists — and probably transfer to rewrite historical past books.
Reporters Without Borders stated that since Duterte’s election in 2016, media have been subjected to verbal and judicial intimidation for work deemed overly crucial of the federal government.
“The demonization of historians, lecturers (and journalists) will proceed,” Pante stated. “And the dismissive angle (towards them) will probably be sufficient to generate worry of talking up and getting arrested or censored.
Filipino archivist Carmelo Crisanto, who leads the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission, is racing to digitize case information and testimonies of 11,103 survivors of the dictatorship, in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of martial regulation in September.
He fears that if the tales of martial regulation survivors are forgotten, folks will probably be as soon as once more inclined to political violence.
His group of about 30 folks plus 1,500 college pupil volunteers — most of them are half his age and haven’t lived by martial regulation themselves — was chosen to guard the reality for the subsequent era.
“I wish to have a part of this digital archive accessible to the general public, in a manner that (may be) simply accessible, to be despatched to high schools right here within the nation and in addition some associate establishments overseas, in order that the reminiscence and proof won’t ever be misplaced,” he stated.
“If there’s one lesson state authorities discovered from the martial regulation interval, it is that nobody (has to) go to jail, even when they commit gross human rights violations,” he stated.
Robles, the creator, stated folks had advised her they needed to offer copies of her books to kin, whereas others needed to stash away a provide in case the brand new authorities bans reprints.
“They stated they wish to cover it in order that after the Marcos presidency, then they’ll convey it out and preserve the reminiscence alive,” she stated.
Robles stated she is set to maintain writing and critiquing the nation’s political panorama, regardless of fears of censorship — however she admits, “I’m not simply afraid of censorship, I’m afraid of being arrested.”