Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte denied allegations that the Department of Education (DepEd) was “rebranding” the martial law era under the brutal regime of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“Bilang Education Secretary, wala po sa aking mandato ang pagsira sa integridad ng ating kasaysayan,” she said in a statement released last October 25.
“At ang Department of Education (DepEd) – na kasalukuyang abala sa mga programang naglalayong maiangat ang kalidad ng basic education sa Pilipinas – ay walang panahon para sa historical revisionism na pilit na iginigiit ng ilang mga anti-Marcos groups,” the Vice President added.
VP Sara Duterte: DepEd not engaged in historical revisionism, Martial law rebranding "DepEd is not in the business of…
Posted by The Cavite Rising on Monday, October 24, 2022
These came after photos recently went viral online showing DepEd modules that referred to the martial law years of 1972 to 1980 as the “Period of the New Society.”
Photo courtesy of TeacherPH.com website
Duterte said that the terms “New Society/Bagong Lipunan” and “Martial Law” are both “historical facts”.
“Both terms have been used in DepEd textbooks since 2000 — within their proper context. DepEd is not in the business of erasing these facts and replacing them with something else,” she added.
The term “New Society” was a promise and a dream of Marcos Sr. which he had often mentioned in his key speeches according to Ateneo de Manila University Martial Law Museum.
Marcos Sr’s 20-year military rule, widely considered one of the darkest chapters in the Philippine history, was fraught with rampant corruption, cronyism, media oppression, and human rights abuses.
About 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed during martial law, according to Amnesty International.
A bloodless people power revolt in February 1986 ousted Marcos and forced him and his family into exile in Hawaii, where he died years later.
The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has already recovered P174 billion of Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth, but it continues to run after P125 billion more.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of DepEd and the Official Gazette
