Philippine social media is currently abuzz with quotes from Voltaire and Churchill, following the naive statement of a starlet, Ella Cruz, who said that, “history is tsismis (tsimis is Filipino slang for gossip).”

One of the Philippines’ well-known historians, writer Ambeth Ocampo, has already (and partially) responded by saying that history, though at times biased, is based on facts, with the aim to search for historical truths. True, Voltaire authored a statement that history is a commonly agreed “lie,” but modern history scholars are in agreement that Voltaire’s witty remarks betray a type of historical and self-defeating cynicism. We also have to take into account the context of Voltaire’s statement — it was made at a time when Voltaire himself was advocating for a grand view of France’s historical past.

Yes, there are gaps, for example, with regards to our knowledge of ancient Philippine history, but it doesn’t mean that because there are gaps in our knowledge there are no bedrock facts we can start with. History scholars are precisely devoting their skills so that whenever factual evidence comes up, they are duty-bound to use their expertise to record and objectively report it.  

The problem with the Ella-tsismis-historians is that the recent history of the Marcos regime is well-documented, scholarly investigated, and replete with validated facts – from the plunder of the Philippine treasury, the wanton human rights violations, up to the People Power-backed widespread public unrest that led to the regime’s infamous downfall in 1986. It is not ancient as Lapu-Lapu’s, but is very contemporary, with hard data and facts plainly at hand. The facts, financial accounting, court decisions, documentary evidence, and all the recorded/signed witness accounts of conspirators, victims, and neutral agencies are accessible to all. We only need to read them with an unbiased mind. 

What the history cynics are busy with is not to uncover historical truths but to aid in the cover-up. They may call themselves post-modernists, Machiavellian, or other fancy names, but their lack of expertise and outright denial of facts betray their true motives. The main motive is to deoderize the return to power of the Marcos family, and help in another era of myth-making that will, perhaps, serve their parochial pride (Ilocos, we are one!), and their financial, illegal, and political interests, among many others.

History, as in other fallible disciplines, may lead to biased accounts, but that is a challenge for us to be more vigilant in safeguarding factual journalism, which is a form of history-taking, and not the kind of Malacañang Palace press coverage that allows unvetted bloggers and vloggers whose only aim is to rake in thousands of followers that can be monetized via YouTube and Facebook. That is not journalism but plain and simple sycophancy and virulent propaganda. And there is a more sinister trend in Philippine popular culture: after these cynical forces have started to cast doubt on legitimate journalism, they are now busy chipping at the validity of mainstream historians. 

Ella is just one of the many malignant symptoms thriving in the distorted historical (and false) narratives that the current administration and that of Duterte are systematically disseminating. More will follow, I suspect. Let this be a warning to all – the work of true historians is never complete so long as the talons of treachery are clawing their way back to tighten their hold on the reins of power and their barefaced manipulation of the public. – Rappler.com

Joel Vega is a former correspondent of NHK TV and lives in Arnhem, The Netherlands where he works as medical copyeditor. He is the author of the poetry collection DRIFT which won the NBDB national book award in 2019 for best poetry book in English.