Their knees are on the ground—exhausted from the bloody war on drugs where extrajudicial killings have derived into, from the unending battle and uncertain actions of the government against the pandemic, from hunger and poverty, from injustice and fear, from lies and manipulation. The Filipinos have endured for too long but lo and behold! Like salvation, the election is their only ticket to get out of this living hell.
On May 9, schools were drawn with lines of people exercising their rights to vote and at the end of the day, with great speed yet questionable accuracy, the numbers which will state who will govern this poor country started to appear on televisions.
The son of the late dictator, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., had led the race with over 30 million votes against his main competitor Vice President Leni Robredo who had 14.3 million votes. Marcos’ vice-presidential running mate and daughter of the current president Sara Duterte had a huge advantage with 30.3 million votes compared to Kiko Pangilinan with 8.9 million votes.
Some people, especially the “kakampinks”, the crowd-name for Leni’s supporters, have reacted with contempt and distaste with how the election system worked and how the results turned out.
Even international news publications such as The Washington Post, CNN, The Guardian and Time have released articles expressing concern and warning to people who are witnessing another historical narrative in the country.
With such great irony, the Marcos family is bound to make a comeback to the Malacañang Palace more than three decades after Ferdinand Marcos left office. Stained by their corruption, their plundered billions, their almighty power that has silenced the independent media and the brutal violence which killed thousands of people, Marcos was ousted by the People Power Revolution.
“This is kinda like if Germany elected Adolph Hitler Jr.,” a twitter user Leon Acord tweeted, replying upon The New York Time’s publication of their article about Bongbong Marcos.
If this has been the case, then why would people want to elect a presidential candidate whose family has ill-gotten wealth, unpaid taxes and an interesting history of dictatorship?
Marlon Lawis, 23, one of the Marcos-Duterte supporters who gathered in EDSA last May 10 to celebrate the partial election results said “Naniniwala ako before na masama ang mga Marcos pero dahil sa paglaganap ng social media, dito ko nakita na mali lahat ng binintang sa mga Marcos. (Before, I believed that the Marcoses are bad but because of social media, I’ve learned that the accusations against them are all wrong).”
In a closer look to the EDSA gathering, a red-haired ex-anti-Marcos woman named Cecilia Manglicmod, 56, was quick to deny that she belonged to the “pink”. Through Youtube influencers, the once activist against the Marcos has shifted perceptions and now surely thinks that “the Marcoses did no wrong.”
Another Marcos supporter named Hercules Sison, 42, shared “Si Marcos daw ay magnanakaw pero nag-internet ako, mali pala ang napapakinggan ko sa mga balita (They said Marcos is a thief but I browsed the internet, the news is wrong).”
Such statements from Marcos supporters reflected the social media campaign strategy of the Marcos’ camp in revising the history. With videos stating a fabricated narrative about how the Marcos regime was the “golden era” of the Philippines being more accessible than the official documents, court cases and in-depth articles about Martial Law victims, Marcos has still managed to capture the hearts of many Filipinos, in all age groups.
“There is exposure to disinformation even at very young ages,” said Ronald Mendoza, dean of Manila’s Ateneo School of Government.
Despite having no actual memory of the gruesome period of martial law, many young voters still believe in what appears to be the “truth” behind this period from the fabricated narrative online.
“It’s an arsenal of tools in denialism, distortionism, and cherry picking,” Fatima Gaw, co-leader of the Philippine Media Monitoring Laboratory said pertaining to TikTok being a tool for spreading these kinds of information too.
The whole rebrand of the Marcoses has also succeeded with the failure of the Philippine government to protect the history within the consciousness of the public, Gaw added.
Aside from the social media campaigns, the denial of Bongbong Marcos to the disinformation accusations against him has also added fuel to the flaming fire of disinformation.
Marcos Jr. even told CNN Philippines that his social media followers are organic despite Twitter’s suspension of hundreds of accounts that promote Marcos campaigns due to spam and manipulation in January.
The social media companies that did not address the disinformation dissemination seriously also have a big contribution to the made-up history. Some companies are victims for their exploited platforms, yet some are enablers for not taking appropriate action to combat disinformation.
With Filipinos being the most active social media users according to DataReportal, they have also been the easiest target of disinformation hence—an easy way to rewrite history. A history where corruption is being tolerated, where Martial Law victims are being forgotten, and where lies can manipulate the voters’ decisions in the elections.
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