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BACOLOD, Philippines (UPDATED) – A school here drew flak online after it posted videos about the “good side” of the tyrannical regime of the late president Ferdinand Marcos at the university lobby.
A student at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R), Daniel Pollentes, posted on Facebook about his school showing “Justice for Marcos” videos.
He asked if it reflects the school policy. “I hope they don’t forget to ask for justice for the more than 3,000 killed,” he added.
In response, the UNO-R, on its Facebook page run by the school’s external affairs, justified that the videos were part of the “series of videos” which presented the “two sides” of the Marcos dictatorship.
“UNO-R is an educational institution that educates,” it said.
The school also apologized to “those who feel insulted of the video.”
“Our apologies, but they were not shown to purify a dictator but to present what martial law was all about,” it said, adding that “the pro-martial law videos are online videos presenting us that there are those who still get the dictator as their hero.”
The school said it downloaded the videos from YouTube.
Local journalists hit attempts at historical revision
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) Bacolod chapter said it is appalled by the showing of videos on the Marcos dictatorship at the university lobby.
The justification given by the school’s external affairs office for showing what it has confirmed were pro- and anti-Marcos videos, all downloaded from YouTube – to “educate” people with a balanced presentation of the “pros and cons” of the dictatorship – is already, on its face, an attempt at historical revisionism, the NUJP-Bacolod statement said.
“After all, ample historical, scholarly, legal and even personal accounts exist of the plunder and gross human rights violations under Marcos’ brutal regime. We are sure UNO-R itself has ample material about that dark chapter in our history without resorting to showing, without context, ‘as is’ videos from sources that have not been vetted for accuracy and credibility,” it added.
Far from educating, this disgraceful exercise is more likely to sow confusion and disinformation, the journalists also said.
School official takes responsibility
On Friday afternoon, UNO-R director for external affairs Carlos Legaspi Jr apologized for the videos posted on the school lobby, and said these were already taken down.
“I take responsibility for compiling, posting, and publishing these videos. The whole context of the videos [was to] start with the atrocities during the 1972 martial law. The succeeding videos were about the victims of martial law. Then the [positive] clips about the martial law,” he told NUJP-Bacolod.
“I am making this public apology, and especially to the victims of martial law, for posting this video clips (downloaded from YouTube). It is not the university’s stand but rather an act to really tell the truth. The context of the presentation includes the YouTube video clips on the victims of martial law,” Legaspi said.
He also asked the public to disassociate UNO-R from the publication of the videos as he takes full responsibility for the incident. – Rappler.com
*Screenshot of Marcos video from Daniel Pollentes’ Facebook page; photo of University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos from Wikipedia.
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