DEBUNKING MARTIAL LAW MYTHS

1. Golden Age of the Philippines during Marcos regime

“Mas maganda naman ang ekonomiya noong panahon ni Marcos.”

To answer that, the timeline should be clear first. Ferdinand Marcos was a president for
21 years, from 1965 to 1986. Filipinos are confused which specific part of his regime is
the golden age. The first term of Ferdinand Marcos being a president is indeed a good
time for the Philippines since he has many achievements like building infrastructure that
helped the agricultural sector and Filipinos seen that he has a vision for the Philippines.
The regime of Ferdinand Marcos was long and ran for 20 years and it’s true that there’s
an improvement in the Philippine’s economy on his first term. The country’s gross
national product rise, the earnings of the top 100 companies in our country rise and you
can see that there’s an economic boom in our country BUT that economic boom was
NOT sustained for the entire duration that Marcos was in power. At the end of 1970s,
one after another, factors were showed that there will be impending economic
breakdown that will happen. You can see that even before the EDSA People Power
happened, the Philippines’ economy is already failing.

A symbol of poverty during the term of Ferdinand Marcos. A picture of Joel Abong in Negros Occidental.
Also, during the term of Ferdinand Marcos, the unemployment rate worsened from
6.30% in 1972 to 27.65% in 1985. In economics, they have this concept called
Philips curve where the price of the commodity rises, the unemployment should
lessen, but that concept was ruined during Marcos term because the unemployment
rate was rising, and so the price of the commodity.

2. Marcos best president!

“Marcos is the best president because if other presidents are good, how come
we are still in this mess? Bakit mahirap pa rin ang Pilipinas?”

We should always remember why the Philippines are still poor after Marcos’s regime
is because we’re still paying the debt that came from them. The effect of what they
did cannot be constrained in the year 1965 to 1986, if you see that the Filipinos are
still poor during 1990 is because we are paying Marcos’ debts.

3. Architecture
“Magaling ang mga Marcos dahil marami silang napatayo!”

The progress during Marcos’ term was an illusion. They use architecture to deceived
Filipinos that there’s a progress in the Philippines. These architectures were state
sponsored but they are nothing but debts. Ito ay puro mga utang. They are clever to
use architecture (because buildings project progress) as a means of propaganda to
perpetuate the mythology of nation, the mythology of power, because a lot of people
think that if there’s a lot of building, the country is prosperous, but that doesn’t
indicate the true condition of the Philippines. These projects of building
infrastructures can be actually damaging for the economy of our country because
while these infrastructures were being made, at the same time, our country’s
external debt are also increasing. And up to this day, we’re still paying for it.
We should also remember that a lot of Imelda’s projects are only beneficial for the
rich people. Most of the architectures during their time are elitista or only favorable
for the rich people. Example of this is the ramp of CCP (Cultural Center of the
Philippines), where you need to have a car, for you to enter the main entrance. If you
don’t have a car, you’ll enter in the side entrance. A lot of infrastructure made by the
Marcoses are made for international events (which are sponsored by them) like Miss
Universe, Folk Arts Theater, that was made in a matter of 77 days.
One example of rushed project by the Marcoses is the ‘Film Palace’. Imelda rushes
the workers because she wanted the project to be finished immediately which ends
with a tragedy. The scaffolding collapsed and still now, the numbers of people who
died that day are still unknown. Bodies were not retrieved and were just buried under
the building.
4. Filipinos have discipline during Martial Law
“Mas ligtas ang mga Pilipino during Martial Law! May disiplina ang mga
Pilipino!”

Yung mga nagpapadisiplina, yun ang mga takot, yung mga duwag. It is possible to
have a progress without dictatorship. Ferdinand Marcos said that he declared Martial
Law to lessen the communist in our country, but the number of NPA during 1972 will
not exceed to two thousand (2000)