Philstar.com NewsLab is Most Development-Oriented Youth Program at UPLB’s Gandingan Awards

MANILA, Philippines — Philstar.com NewsLab's "31 Years of Amnesia: Stories on the Myths that Made Marcos," a multimedia exploration of the supposed "golden years" of the Philippines was named the Most Development-Oriented Youth Program at the 13th Gandingan Awards at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

"For Lumad schools, even holding class is a struggle," a feature article on indigenous peoples' education in Surigao del Sur and other parts of Mindanao was also cited as Most Development-Oriented Feature Article.

Held by the UP Community Broadcasters' Society, the annual UPLB Isko't Iska's Multi-Media Awards "highlights the contribution of national, local, and community based media and online platforms in changing the lives of Filipinos through the process of communication for development," Dr. Maria Stella Tirol, dean of the UP College of Development Communication, said.

One of the core awards at Gandingan, Most Development-Oriented Youth Program was opened to nominations from across platforms in this year's edition of the annual awards.

"31 Years of Amnesia: Stories on the Myths That Made Marcos" is Philstar.com's second project for NewsLab and is a response to attempts at historical revisionism of the Marcos regime.

Published in September 2017, the series uses books on the dictatorship, interviews with survivors and witnesses, as well as historical data to look into persistent myths about ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the supposed "golden years" of the Philippines during his decades-long rule.

The series was released in time for the commemoration of the declaration of martial law in 1972 and amid a seeming nostalgia for Marcos that was helped along by praise for the ousted dictator from President Rodrigo Duterte himself.

The series consists of 16 multimedia pieces that look into claims like how the Philippine economy supposedly bloomed under Marcos, that the martial law years were characterized by law and order, and that Marcos was a war hero during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. 

The series also looks into massacres in Mindanao during the Marcos years, the start of Overseas Filipino Worker deployment and labor export under Marcos, and even the nostalgia around Nutribun, a USAID program to combat malnutrition that the Marcos administration took credit for.

The "31 Years of Amnesia" series is also meant to serve as a resource for students and for regular readers who may not have access to books and other material published in the year after the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986.

The series is meant as a look into the fundamental freedoms lost during the Marcos years, freedom from misinformation about those years, and as a springboard to meaningful discussion on a potential threat to the same freedoms more than three decades later.

The Gandingan awards, and a certificate of recognition from the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility awarded in 2018 for "coverage that helped Filipinos understand the complex issues that confront them as citizens, and in so doing, fulfilled the role of a free press in the Philippines," are a testament to Philstar.com's steady growth from under the shadow of legacy brand The STAR.