Rigid Recounting: Martial Law Memories

Abstract

On 30 June 2022, the Philippines inaugurated Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. as the 17th president of the Philippines. This came as a disappointment as it coincided with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by Bongbong Marcos’ father. While political pundits looked at the ubiquity of “fake news” in the information space, I argue that this is a result of what Morris-Suzuki posits as the “historiography of oblivion” particularly on how popular culture narrates contemporary history. There were several komiks, animation and children’s books focused on re-telling the events of Martial Law. However, unlike academic articles or history textbooks, the advantage of such creative media is that they are not bound by the rigid rules of formal educational materials. This means that the medium’s creators could creatively tell their stories. Despite the truthfulness of narratives, the results of the elections show the rejection of 31 million Filipinos towards this history. This paper will study the samples and try to understand the gradual loss of affect from Filipinos who have consumed the narratives to explain the results of the recent elections.