Towards a Nuanced History of the Marcos Era, Warts and All:

Approaches, Evidence and Contestations

A Call for Participation in a Conference and Book Project

Conference Dates: 27-28 February 2023
Deadline for Abstract: 15 December 2022

The stunning return of a Marcos to the pinnacle of power in the Philippines fuels the country’s
unprecedented and fiercely contested history and memory wars. History and memory wars refer to the
public contestations (both academic and non-academic) over historical interpretations and the
fundamental questions about the nature of history and its purposes. On the one side is the decades-long
dominant narrative that speaks of the Marcos era as a “dark age” in Philippine history and “never again”
should it happen. This view began to take shape in the 1970s among progressive groups. It crystallized
under the euphoria of the 1986 EDSA uprising and became publicly accepted as truth in the succeeding
decades. The opposing side, increasingly assertive and bourgeoning lately, is the narrative that paints
the Marcos era as a/the’ golden age’. Upheld initially by hardcore Marcos Sr loyalists, it gained
tremendous support beyond those circles and helped Marcos Jr to clinch the presidency. The astute use
of social and other media by the BBM camp and its propaganda campaigns are often cited as the reason
for this. Still, other factors, such as the role of positive memories of the Marcos era among segments of
the population who passed stories on to their children and grandchildren, may also have played a
significant role. The manner and the degree to which these suppositions apply to our present situation
calls for a genuine systematic inquiry. Circulating against the backdrop of the failures (both perceived
and real) of liberals-led post-EDSA regimes to meet people’s expectations, these memories fuel
nostalgia for the Marcos era. As a counter-narrative to the long-established view, it is often branded as
fake news or historical revisionism.

The transcendental truth lies behind, between, or beyond these narratives. The ‘dark age’ version
projects onto the national screen the viewpoint of victims and critics of the Marcos regime. Borrowing
the idea from Talitha Espiritu (2017), they allegorized what happened to them as a national tragedy and
excluded the contrasting experience and views of people who appreciated what the Marcos regime did
and what it stood for. On the other hand, the ‘golden age’ view highlights or overstates the
achievements of the Marcos government while denying or downplaying the human rights violation,
economic crisis, extravagance, corruption, cronyism, and the violence it committed. Both views are
selective and lack the nuances and dynamism expected of good history. It is about time history (both as
a profession and as knowledge) asserts its autonomy from the virulence of partisan politics and serves
the general public’s need for a nuanced, multi-faceted and comprehensive history.

The central questions this online conference seeks to address are:

1.) What contributory factors can explain the development of the history and memory wars over the
Marcos era?

2.) What is the nature of history that fuels history and memory wars? What do the history and memory
wars over the Marcos era tell us about the nature of history?
3.) What and who are the underlying forces that underpin the two opposing narratives? For what and
for whose purposes do these narratives serve?

4.) Why the need for a nuanced history of the Marcos era?

5.) What does a nuanced history entail? How may it be achieved?

6.) For whom is it? Who are those who oppose it? And why?

7.) What may a nuanced history of the Marcos era look like? What sources are available, valid, and
reliable? How may they be analyzed?

We welcome expressions of interest for participation. Please send by 15 December 2022 a 200-300-
word abstract proposal for papers that address any of the questions above. Selected papers shall be
published in a journal (special issue) or an edited volume. Suggested topics include, but are not limited
to, the following:

• Critical discourse analysis of the printed and online exchanges for or against the two clashing
narratives

• Mis/disinformation and fact-checking on both sides (modes, actors, discourses, popular media
and audience responses)

• Historiographic re-assessment of both anti- and pro-Marcos scholarly and journalistic literature

• Intellectual vs/as Popular Reasons (empirical vs emotive realism; true feeling vs true facts)

• The philosophical underpinning of history and memory wars

• History vs/as Memory and the popular and literary representations of the two narratives

• The crisis of liberalism and the history and memory wars

• Participation (or lack thereof) of Filipino historians and other scholars

• The oral history of the ambiguous and complex experience of the Marcos era (family, inter-
generational, sectoral, community)

• Institutional, intellectual and experiential account of Marcos’s projects such as FTI, KKK, Kadiwa,
Masagana 99, etc.

• Documenting and analyzing memories of the implementation of projects such as Kadiwa Center,
Masagana 99, COCOFED, KKK, Samahang Nayon, etc.

• People’s memories of the non-continuance of the Marcos projects in the post-EDSA years

• Trajectories and historical development of the two narratives

• Analysis of audience responses to and debates around the movies Katips and MIM (Maid in
Malacanang)

• Analyzing key actors (social media personalities, columnists, historians and other scholars) who
promote/critique any or both narratives
About the Conveners

Rommel A. Curaming is a Senior Assistant Professor and Deputy Dean (Graduate

Studies and Research) at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD). He completed a
PhD in Southeast Asian Studies at the Australian National University (ANU) and MA
degrees from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of the
Philippines-Diliman. Before joining UBD, he was a postdoctoral fellow at La Trobe
University and the National University of Singapore (NUS). The empirical and
thematic areas of his research vary. Still, they cohere around analyzing the politics
of the (supposedly) non-political, as evident in knowledge production, distribution
and consumption in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. He published in various journals, such
as Critical Asian Studies, Southeast Asia Research, Time and Society, and Philippine Studies. His book
Power and Knowledge in Southeast Asia: State and Scholars in Indonesia and the Philippines was published
by Routledge (2020).

Karl Patrick R. Mendoza is a PhD Research Candidate at the Department of

Media and Communication, University of Canterbury (UC). He is also an Instructor
at the Department of Communication and Media Studies at the University of
Santo Tomas (UST), where he teaches new media writing and political
communication. Before his doctorate, he taught at various universities and
colleges in Metro Manila and worked as a program associate and social
mobilization officer in some local NGOs. His research interests include media and
cultural studies, journalism, political communication, social semiotics, and critical discourse studies. He
has published in peer-reviewed journals and presented papers at national and international
conferences. In 2021, he obtained the Judith Ensor Prize for Students with a Specific Learning Disability
and the MFAT Postgraduate Research Development Award.