I was sixteen years old and was in 10th grade at the time. Much like adolescents my age, I spent most of my after-school hours scrolling through Facebook. Take note that this was a time wherein I had no background in verifying information. I was just a gullible teen, easily manipulated by what I saw. One day, I came across a post regarding the late dictator and former president Ferdinand Marcos wherein his administration was described as a golden era for the Philippines. Marcos was allegedly part of an important line of Filipinos destined to lead the nation to greatness and prosperity. It listed the achievements of the late dictator, including the supposed exchange rate of 2 PH pesos to 1 US dollar and the many infrastructures he has made built. I can no longer remember the other details in the lengthy post, but I remember it attached several old-looking pictures, which to my younger self spoke legitimacy. After all, history books, which are accurate narratives, contained vintage images, so I shared the post in my timeline. From that moment, I became a Marcos apologist—someone who excuses the human rights violations during Marcos’ time for his “outstanding” contributions to the Philippines, specifically its economy. A disturbing “the ends justify the means” kind of person, if you will. However, the “ends” in the story that I was told were actually incorrect. I realized this came my senior high school year where we had a course entitled “Media and Information Literacy” which my batchmates call “MIL” for short. Thanks to this subject, my views completely changed as I learned how to recognize accurate and verified information, a tool still of paramount value to my chosen program today. Nursing is a profession founded on evidence-based practices and a growing body of knowledge through research. Therefore I, as a senior nursing student whose future career is based on data and evidence, would have come up to my younger self and told him that Facebook is not a reliable source of information, nor is that questionable post a reliable source of information. I would have added that during Marcos’ regime, 6 out of 10 Filipinos were poor, wages of farmers and workers fell sharply, and the price of goods tripled. International debt was also at a record-breaking high during the time of Marcos, from $360 million in 1961 to $28.26 billion in 1986. Therefore, the story that the Philippines was enjoying a booming economy during the late dictator’s reign was nothing but a fairytale. Not to mention, dizzying numbers of warrantless arrests, murders, tortures, and many other human rights abuses are also a part of the legacy of Marcos. An understatement that doesn’t even come close to giving justice to the amount of suffering the victims of Martial Law endured. My younger self would be too cowardly to look at the eyes of the victims and tell them that what Marcos did was justified, not only because there was no economic prosperity in the first place but also because no material thing can equal human dignity and life. As a writer and nursing student leader, I hope that this humiliating recollection has helped spread a tiny portion of the truth to people like my 10th-grade self and make them realize that it is not too late to start looking for the truth in the right places.
SOURCES:
Martial law in data. Martial Law Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2021, from https://martiallawmuseum.ph/magaral/martial-law-in-data/.
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