Altering what God can not

"God can not alter the past, although historians can, " Samuel Butler once wrote. And our grandchildren will benefit from the heated exchange if Grade 5 public school textbooks alter the sordid record of Marcos dictatorship. Marian School academic supervisor Antonio Calipjo-Go has a solid track record for blasting science and grammar textbooks flaws. But falsification of history can distort a country's vision and future. "( They ) are far more lethal," he writes in the Inquirer commentary: "The True Colors of the Chameleon."

Thus, he skewered the Education Department's textbook : "Marangal na Pilipino." This 220-page book parcels out a niggardly 11 lines to Jose Rizal. The account of five presidents, from Manuel Roxas to Diosdado Macapagal, were crammed into 8 pages. But it splurged almost a fourth ( 48 pages ) of the entire book on Ferdinand Marcos. While Rizal's name appears six times, that of Marcos' name did 136 times..

"In the subliminal message that has been sent, who will students think did more for our country?," he asked. Where the book records the dictatorship's excesses, they're justified by Marcos' intentions. These colored judgements made "martial law appear benign and benevolent."

Not so, protested University of the Philippines authors namely: Grace Estela C. Mateo; Lydia Agno; Celinia Balanso; Rosita Tadena; and Mary del Jose. They furiously denied they were so in awe of Marcos, they whitewashed the dictatorship.

The five point out they, too, criticized the Marcos period : from human right abuses to loss of liberties and summary executions. The book also asserts the "New Society" failed to implement reforms as hunger, poverty and unrest increased.

Go ignored the book printed photos of protest rallies, demonstrators being arrested, Plaza Miranda survivors, even Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.. 'How can we be accused of being "true blue, dyed-in-the-wool apologists" for Marcos' with the following passages?"

This debate has just started. And we'll not have an answer on whether "Marangal na Pilipino" peddles counterfeit history, for some time yet.. For now, it's enough to welcome this debate as vital.

A people of notoriously short memories, we must keep this debate in context, namely: that there has been a calibrated and bankrolled-attempt to rehabilitate, by installment, the dictatorship. That effort ranges from the futile bid, despite Joseph Estrada's help, to bury the dictator's corpse in Libingan ng mga Bayani, setting up special Marcos holidays to mass-producing textbooks that alters what God can not.

"The Five Percent Revolution" denigrates the People Power Uprising.. That revolt sent the Marcoses scrambling on escape helicopters for Hawaiian exile. "This is Ninoy" regurgitates smears on Senator Benigno Aquino playing footsie with the communists. And 'Hubris' encapsulates Imelda Marcos claim that martial law was 'the most democratic period in our history." .

The critical issue is what historian Ambeth Ocampo calls the massive "miseducation" of students on martial law. "History is a dangerous, often subversive subject. It opens minds," Ocampo wrote. "But myths and distortions warp the present crop of history textbook and presentation of martial law". This padlocks minds. .

Ocampo confirms an analysis of martial law text books, written by Joel Sarmenta and Malvin Yabut from the University of Asia and the Pacific. The two researchers presented their study before the Ateneo and Madison Universities Conference on Marcos Legacies.

"Their findings were shocking," Ocampo notes. They document "myths and distortions." Democratic dissent such as the "First Quarter Storm" is depicted as an act of chaos. Books gloss over militarization and ignore victims of repression. They remain silent on suppression of press freedom.

As a consequence, the generation born after Sept. 21, 1972 -- now comprising over 13 percent of the entire population -- are among the almost 9 million using these textbooks. They do not appreciate the struggle for democracy. .

Today's students belong to a generation that vaguely remembers --or cares? -- about the trial of Ninoy Aquino. Why should they? The textbooks ignore that it was a kangaroo court even as it downgrades Aquino. What does Bataan mean to them? Or that the dictator sported false medals from that battleground.

And do the textbooks recall such obscenities as the Marcos decree directing Filipinos fall on their knees every September 21? That decree made martial law anniversary a "Thanksgiving" holiday.

National amnesia emboldened Rep. Roque Ablan, in a previous Congress, to author House Bill 5147. If approved, it would have made the dictator's September 11 birthday, a special non-working holiday in Ilocos Norte as well as Laoag City . That'd be like carving Marcos' name on the Edsa Shrine.

Can a people, whose memory has been scrubbed blank, rise as a purposeful nation? That is what this "Marangal na Pilipino" debate is all about. And we owe Calipjo-Go one.* ( E-mail: juan_mercado@pacific.net.ph )

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