No erasures, no revisions.
This was the call of a group of teachers and educators opposed to the hero’s burial given to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos last week.
In a press conference in the University of the Philippines Diliman campus on Thursday, a new alliance spearheaded by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines was launched to unite members of the education sector against “historical revisionism” and the “rehabilitation” of the Marcoses.
Spokesperson Michael Pante, history professor at Ateneo de Manila University, said the group was formed after the “spontaneous” protests last Friday that united students and faculty members of UP Diliman, Ateneo and Miriam College after the hasty burial of Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“We want to maximize the potential of the education sector,” Pante said, noting that they play a big role in educating young minds about the atrocities during martial law.
“Like what we usually say to our students, no erasures,” he added. “History has already judged Marcos, and we should not revise anymore.”
Pante also expressed their opposition to the possible inclusion of the Supreme Court decision allowing the burial in textbooks for public schools.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones earlier said the Department of Education would include the ruling as part of historical facts.
“But it will not in any way influence an objective assessment of the Marcos regime,” Briones was quoted as saying.
Pante slammed the idea as well as the other school books that do not retell the hardships of people during martial law.
Bias should favor Pinoys
“Objectivity cannot be an excuse,” he said, noting that all texts have biases from the information they select and present. “If there is an apparent bias, it should be toward the Filipino people.”
The group recently launched a Facebook page with short videos of professors from different fields discussing the impact of martial law on agriculture, national minorities and labor policy, among others.
“We launched these videos to debunk the myths circulating about the Marcos regime,” Pante said.
They also plan to hold seminars, forums and symposiums for students and teachers alike to start the conversation on atrocities committed under the Marcos dictatorship.