133987 | HI 166 - X

Bonus Paper 1: Memory and Martial Law in the Philippines

The talk I attended was Fine Arts and Literature talk of the public lecture series. It

was about how culture in artistic forms flourished in the Marcos Regime. This was presented

by Mr. Roy Agustin of the English department in Escaler Hall on March 21, 2017. He

separated the talk into two parts, the Marcos and the Opposition usage of art. There are two

tenets about art which is stated before the he starts. The first being that art is a form of

subliminal messaging. The second is that art usually flourishes in times of hardship or

oppression. He starts with a brief refresher Marcos and the Martial law.

Former President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared Martial Law in September 21, 1972.

The main idea behind martial law was the New Society or the Bagong Lipunan. His vision

was very clear. However, as time went on, the reality of the new society was put into

question. During the martial law, he amassed properties acquiring a lot resulting from his

feud with his former Vice President Lopez. These properties included ABS-CBN, which he

used to promote his vision through mainstream media. This would be one of the main

channels in which he would spread the Marcos Fiction. The Marcos couple apparently liked

to puff up their personal histories. Marcos claimed he was a descendant of Limahong and

Juan Luna. He also fabricated his Imelda boasted of how she spent her childhood in

Malacaang and Olot mansion. In reality she actually lived in the garage of one of her

relatives. She actually had to ask the schools to finance her beauty pageants. Even their

serendipitous meeting was portrayed uber-romantically in the 1965 movie Iniguhit ng

Tadhana. The truthfulness of the claims to us now is no longer in question as these have been

debunked by various credible sources. The main issue is whether the Marcos family

themselves believed these claims.

 These were the foundation of the art culture in the time of the Marcos Regime. Both

in content and admiration. The censorship laws limited the allowed art that could be seen by

the Philippine public. The conspicuous consumption of art by Imelda dictated the social

status of owning exquisite pieces of art. Art was very important to the couple that they

opened put up various infrastructures dedicated to the arts. The main examples of these were

the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Philippine High School for the Arts.

Those against the Regime had to be creative as well. The opposition actually

produced an adequate number of artistic products in their artistic revolution. This were spread

in their artistic groups NPAA and PAKSA. Their efforts however remained underground and

was like the Blitzkrieg strikes to the community. They went in, set up, and got out before,

hopefully, they were forcefully shut down. Part of their other methods of resistance were

through pamphlets and satirical editorial cartoons. Just like the Marcoses, the opposition also

used imagery in order to portray their message of resistance and insults to the people.

I believe that the event was very helpful in seeing the rationale behind the art of the

Marcos Regime. I t doesnt only affect the art in form, but more importantly in substance.

One of the most important aspects of art that is often disregarded by many is what is called

the affect. The feeling or sensation that one feels when looking or reading a great work of art.

Even the Japanese recognized the importance of the affect when tackling issues concerning

art. One of the reasons why the Philippine flag was banned was that the affect that this piece

of cloth carried with it was so powerful that it gave the Filipinos morale to stand up and fight.

A great work of art cannot exist without great context. There are many great aesthetically

pleasing works that we disregard because of the lack of context and affect inducing

capabilities. And on the other hand, there are very terrible works of art that carry great

importance because it was exactly what was needed at the time.

 History is written by the victor. The Marcos took this to another level by writing

history to ensure victory. These acts of manipulation carried out by the Marcos regime is very

telling of the power that art had. In Germany, the rise of the third Reich was because of a

book entitled Mein Kampf written by Adolf Hitler. Dare I say the most successful dictator the

world has known. Not because of his achievements on the battlefield, but by how much he

got his fiction realized. He was an artist. He has very beautiful paintings and yet as history

shows, his main affect inducing work was the images of the war. Research has shown Hitler

to be a weak junkie behind the scenes, and year we remember this larger than life dictator

who cause so much death and destruction. Though they lost the war, they got what they

wanted, attention.

Hitler had to be mentioned because of one of the most famous poem, Prometheus

Unbound, whose first letter of every line spelled out the chant that many of us still chant

today: MARCOS HITLER DICTADOR TUTA. This became important again once the body

of the late dictator was buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. In doing so, we have just

reinforced the myth that this family has worked so hard to actualize. This is such a great

disservice to the Filipino people. not only because we are lied to straight to our face, but

because they actually believe that we are stupid enough to believe everything that is said.

This didnt even work when the media was controlled and could have easily fed the people

with alternative facts. How do they believe it will work now? Im not sure what is more

insulting, they thinking that we are so stupid, or the fact that we put this stupid people on top

to run this country.

I see this as a very important aspect when studding history because not everyone can

understand and appreciate the beauty of economic figures or theoretical measurement

coefficients of development. But art is universal. History is not all about quantifiable facts
that can be proven with solid images. The emotions and values we associate with the heroes

that we have made our artistic presentation of what we hold dear.