“We want to bring out a strong statement in defense of historical truth against the unrelenting efforts to revise the historical record of plunder and human rights violations during Martial Law and the entire Marcos era. We also commit ourselves to defend the exercise of academic freedom, resist all forms of censorship such as book-banning, and oppose all attempts at red-tagging.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Filipino scholars and academics launched an online petition calling for historical truth amid the looming proclamation of presumptive president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and presumptive vice president and incumbent Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
The group launched a Manifesto in Defense of Historical Truth and Academic Freedom which is currently online, gaining a thousand signatures from Filipino and non-Filipino scholars and academicians based in the Philippines and abroad.
“We want to bring out a strong statement in defense of historical truth against the unrelenting efforts to revise the historical record of plunder and human rights violations during Martial Law and the entire Marcos era. We also commit ourselves to defend the exercise of academic freedom, resist all forms of censorship such as book-banning, and oppose all attempts at red-tagging,” said Ateneo De Manila University professor Oscar Campomanes, one of the initiators of the Manifesto.
Under the next administration, scholars and academicians said they saw an “intensified struggle over historical knowledge and pedagogy, the erasure of traumatic personal and collective memories of plunder and human rights violations under Martial Law, and unbridled myth-making about a so-called ‘Golden Age’ presided over by the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.”
They vow to “oppose all forms of disinformation that rely on fabrication, manipulation, deceptive rebranding, and propaganda using social media and other digital and information technologies.”
They also “pledge to combat all attempts at historical revisionism that distort and falsify history to suit the dynastic interests of the Marcoses and their allies and to fortify their power.”
The manifesto called on fellow scholars and academics here and abroad to also launch activities and creative initiatives to protect historical and collective memories and disseminate these to the broader public.
The initiators of the manifesto include Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz of University of Cambridge, Francis Gealogo of Ateneo de Manila University, Ramon Guillermo of University of the Philippines, Caroline Hau of Kyoto University, Jayson Lamchek of Deakin University, Vina Lanzona of University of Hawaii at Manoa, Carlos Piocos III of De La Salle University, and Lulu Torres Reyes of University of Santo Tomas. (RTS, JJE) 
