Rozan Chaya B.

Marquez
Comm 106-A

A reaction paper on Cebu Press Freedom Week 2022

“I realized that subsequent generations never really knew what it meant to live under a
dictatorship. They have no memories of dictatorship. Unlike me, they don’t have marks on
their bodies, bad dreams at night, or friends who died in the prime of youth to remind them.
When we of this generation go, our memories should not leave the world with us. No, we
must never forget.”—Roberto “Obet” Verzola

These were the words of the late “Obet” Verzola in his book Not on Our Watch. He was an
active social activist and journalist since his college days in the 1970’s. Because of his
written works and social movements with his fellow journalists, he became a political
prisoner during the martial law regime. As a communication student, should I accept the
‘dare’ to fight for academic freedom and disinformation about martial law?
My father once told me that I was fortunate not to be born during the period of martial law.
Previously, such comment did not bother me at all. My history books when I was in grade
school explained that martial law was the golden times in the Philippines. Later on, in high
school my instructors explained what martial law is and why it is necessary in times of
revolt and terrorism. My professors taught me that there is nothing wrong with it, and that
as long as someone does not do anything against the government, he or she would not be
subjected to martial law. Nonetheless, I am grateful that the university I am attending in
college has taught me to become aware what martial law really is and how it affects the
lives of Filipinos even till this day. This was the main focus of the forum I attended
September 21, 2022 entitled “Truth or Dare” with my fellow communication students.
Social media is being weaponized to distort history. This was the main message of Elijah
Mendoza’s talk last Wednesday. He mentioned how agencies and telecommunication
companies monitor the activities of its users and how the selling of ‘information’ occurs
with a third party for continuous influence that may be fed through social media and text
messages. Mendoza’s talk was followed by Manolo Quezon III, who talked about the
history of martial law and how it affected the media industry which I found very interesting
and informative. Lastly, Christian Esquerra gave his talk about how Marcos’ apologists are
victims of disinformation and how troll farms operates to change the opinions of social
media users.
Marcos’ full control and military rule must not be forgotten. Marcos does not want any
opposition. Martial law took away our freedom. Aside from the privilege of writ of habeas
corpus, all freedoms of speech, expression, and assembly are suspended. People are not
allowed to say anything bad about the government. Those who oppose him are arrested,
imprisoned, and, in the worst cases, persecuted. The media is also manipulated in such a
way that only positive news about the administration is broadcast. During Marcos' reign,
the government exerted control over the media and the press. The government censored and
altered news, stories, and information. Marcos is certainly attempting to conceal the truth
from his countrymen.
For me, Martial Law is a very conceited type of governance that shows only its positive
points while neglecting the actual situation, full of lies, deceptions, selfish desires and abuse
of powers. The truth is being denied to society, and lies are being given to it on a daily
basis. People are treated as though they are animals, and their human rights are violated.
Social media plays a big role on washing away the gruesome fate of the victims and the real
condition of the country’s economic state through distorted facts and fake information
shared by ill-minded people online who also learned it from the same platform. There will
always be some who want to deny the truth about the horrible destiny of the victims of
martial law. But we should always bear in mind that it will always be our obligation to
learn the truth about what transpired in our past. Manolo Quezon III’s talk literally gave
me goosebumps because of how real the manipulation is in social media. He said that the
Marcoses are excellent in changing the history that’s why they won in the 2022 elections.
“A lie told a million times becomes a fact; that's the reality of social media," a notable line of
Maria Ressa, a Filipina journalist who has won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2021 who is also
a vocal critic of Facebook and how the website has become a tool for misinformation.
Government officials have recognized how social media is advantageous to them, which has
resulted in the emergence of government trolls that continue to sway social media
discussions. This week’s activity is heavily related to the course of COMM 106 because we
need to know and identify to where we should hold the line in the asking for accountability?
Media firms claim that they promote democracy for its users, but how and when should they
be held accountable for being a tool in manipulating social discussions? 

The Nobel Prize committee has highlighted Ressa's efforts to hold media companies
accountable and exposed them like how Facebook has supported various politicians, most
notably President Rodrigo Duterte and his party members, in spreading fake news and hate
news in the Philippines, as well as the negative repercussions of internet disinformation.
According to the data obtained by her team, Facebook has aided in the corruption of the
democratic process. Misinformation has become a major issue in the Philippines, with
trolling, harassment, and planned social media attacks.

This shift in social interaction has transformed information, which may have a substantial
impact on mobilization and civic participation. Because of the rise of disinformation on social
media, others are easily misled by statistics viewed online. In turn, they share, comment on,
and create new material based on the same information. The rapid dissemination of false
news has a substantial impact on political participation among its users.

What happened in the past foretells what will happen in the future. It honestly scares me
now that we have another Marcos sitting in the presidency. Will I be the next person in this
generation to write an anecdote recounting my experiences during Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s
regime? I witnessed and educated myself of the country's fight to reestablish democracy.
Filipinos have been fighting for it for a long time. The Spaniards were followed by the
Japanese and subsequently by the Americans. We'd beaten them all. The implementation of
Martial Law is never an exception. The people demonstrated their passion for liberty once
more, through both peaceful and aggressive rebellions. We had demonstrated our solidarity
by standing up for our rights. We shall constantly battle against any forces that stand in the
way of our aim of living progressively in a democratic nation.