Historian seeks review of Martial Law materials

MANILA, Philippines — Amid concerns of revised history being taught to the younger generation, a historian said it’s time to review existing materials on martial law and the regime of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Speaking to The Chiefs on Cignal TV’s One News aired on Monday night, historian Jonathan Balsamo of the Philippine Historical Association said the martial law era is being portrayed positively in some history lessons.

He said the rise of the new technology has also resulted in the spread of materials that may not necessarily provide the whole picture of what happened.

“What are the accessible materials? There are a lot that are accessible online and are engaging,” he said in Filipino.

“Maybe it is necessary to review what kind of material sources are accessible to the public because of technology,” he added.

Balsamo also cited recent reports of textbooks that supposedly present a one-sided view of the Marcos administration, focusing on its supposed achievements rather than its negative impact on the country.

Responding to this, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the K-12 curriculum is training Filipino students to critically assess the martial law period and the dictatorship.

She said the public education system provides students with a balanced perspective of the dictatorship to enable them to develop critical analyses of the issues.

“You have to take a look at the overall framework of education right now, specifically K-12,” she said on Tuesday, noting that the approach to education has changed over the years.

“Part of the new way that we are trying to teach our learners is to be able to (analyze)… But in the first place, you have to know how to analyze yourself. You have to teach them to read both sides,” she added.

Briones said students learn not just the bad side of martial law, but also the supposed good sides of it as claimed by some groups.

“You have to hear both sides, whether it is the good side or the bad side,” she said. “If you say that martial law is bad but you do not see claims that martial law is good, then how do you draw your conclusions?”

On inaccurate textbooks, the DepEd chief said these are not the ones produced by the department and are already outdated.

She earlier said that they are looking for ways to ensure that textbooks used in private schools are reviewed by DepEd prior to their use.