By Vergel Labesig
A TEACHERS’ group condemned in the highest manner the latest move of the Department of Education to distort history by downplaying the image of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. as a dictator.
“This revision by the DepEd is a clear strategy of the current administration to rehabilitate the dark history of the Marcos family. It is also a blatant example of disinformation, where the people are deliberately misled by manipulating historical facts,” said Mon Sy, spokesperson of Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy.
In a memo dated last September 6, DepEd is set to change ‘Diktadurang Marcos’ to ‘Diktadura’ in Grade 6 Araling Panlipunan curriculum of the newly launched Matatag curriculum.
‘Diktadurang Marcos’ as a term/phraseology used in the curriculum, explicitly denotes this period in contemporary Philippine history as an authoritarian rule by Marcos.
“Aside from the political motives behind this move, there is no empirical data to support the DepEd’s decision. In fact, a plethora of historical evidence justify the categorization of 1972 to 1986 as the period of Marcos dictatorship. What followed Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972 were massive state-sponsored human rights violations. The reports produced by the Amnesty International missions to the Philippines in 1975 and 1981 have documented cases of torture in various military camps,” Sy added.
According to the group, a total of 3,257 victims of extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented cases of torture, and 70,000 individuals incarcerated were recorded during the Marcos dictatorship.
“We call on our fellow educators to reject this atrocious move by the DepEd and seek transparency in important matters such as curricular revisions. We also demand accountability from Vice President Sara Duterte who, on top of her relentless red-tagging spree, has been an instrument of the Marcoses in state-sponsored historical distortions,” Sy said.