Bongbong Marcos’ Presidential Campaign Is Actively Manipulating Filipinos’ Collective Memory

Presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. speaking at an election rally. Photo courtesy by Patrick Roque.

“Perception is real, truth is not.” 

These pertinent words, spoken by the Philippines’ former first lady Imelda Marcos, wife of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, form the building blocks of contemporary Filipino politics. Perception, or the perception of truth, takes precedence in this archipelago of over 7,000 islands. 

As this ubiquitous ethos proves, the nation’s contemporary political landscape has been shaped by celebrity politics and underpinned by deep-rooted myths for political gain and social control. And the consequences of this mentality have made something as absurd as a presidential campaign by a former dictator’s son an ever-looming reality. 

On October 5th, 2021, the son of former despot Ferdinand Marcos and first lady Imelda Marcos,  Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. (commonly referred to as Bongbong), announced his candidacy for the Philippines’ May 2022 presidential elections. He announced this campaign alongside his running mate Sara Duterte, daughter of the current president Rodrigo Duterte. Together, Marcos Jr. and Duterte form the “Uniteam Coalition.”

Marcos Jr.’s candidacy was met with immediate backlash. He was initially charged with Supreme Court petitions for disqualification on the basis of “moral turpitude,” attributed to his failure to file income tax returns in the 1980s—petitions that were unanimously overruled by the Commission on Elections. However, on account of his calculated campaigning and social media presence, Marcos Jr. has grown increasingly popular within the nation. As of February 2022, Bongbong Marcos led pre-election surveys by a wide margin, exceeding other presidential candidates with more than half of respondents choosing him as their preferred presidential candidate. He has solidified his position as the presidential frontrunner. 

Bongbong’s candidacy paints an ominous picture of a country whose history of oppression and tyranny has been tailored and even effaced to fit the needs of those in power. Amidst the backdrop of a raging election cycle, the “martial law years,” a 14-year period spanning 1972 to 1986 under the leadership of Bongbong’s father, have been propagandized as a golden era of affluence and prosperity, ultimately invalidating the thousands of individuals directly impacted by the elder Marcos’ dictatorship. 

This active reshaping of historical information, a phenomenon known as historical amnesia, has largely shaped contemporary Filipino politics and could have deleterious implications on the future of the nation. Bongbong Marcos’ presidential campaign is voluntarily employing historical amnesia for—in the words of John Clarke—the “willful rewriting of history,” with the larger purpose of reinstating his family’s reputation to its former glory. 

Golden Mythmaking in the Marcos Years (1972-1986)

John Clarke’s “Historical Amnesia: Linking Past, Present, and Future in Politics and Policy” defines historical amnesia as “the disposition to omit, forget or delete aspects of history that are, at least, inconvenient for the politics and policies of the present.” A crucial aspect of this definition is the omission or reshaping of  “aspects of past policy-making, past politics and […] past knowledge that might interrupt the future being projected in the contemporary politics and policies.” Clarke’s use of the term “disposition,” however, supposes an inherent inclination, which is not the case in the scenario of Bongbong Marcos. Placed within the context of the Philippines, the seeds of the Marcos narrative have been carefully sown over time, spanning back to Ferdinand Marcos’ election as president in 1972. 

Ferdinand Marcos’ presidential campaign was built on pretenses. As a congressman, Marcos was lauded as a war hero—an aspect that formed a major part of his campaign. However, his accomplishments were few and far between—it was discovered that Marcos had petitioned to be awarded additional medals long after World War II was over, allowing him to be adorned with a whopping 28 in total. In fact, in 1963, the president at the time awarded Marcos 10 medals in a day in order to gain the congressman’s support. He also cultivated his persona to mythic proportions, spinning a tale through a commissioned biographer that he had inherited a magic amulet, referred to in Tagalog as an “anting-anting.” Marcos claimed that his survival during World War II was directly attributed to his possession of the powerful talisman—the same talisman whose supernatural force was employed by several of the nation’s national heroes such as Andres Bonifacio. By placing himself in the same league as these revolutionary figures in Filipino history, Marcos established his role as a powerful, mythical figure to be reckoned with. 

When he was eventually elected into office, his administration’s atrocities were largely overshadowed by its various material excesses. Filipinos were mesmerized as they watched the Marcoses behave like royalty, partying with iconic American figures ranging from President Reagan, artist Andy Warhol, and even the Trump family. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the Marcos family illegally accumulated close to $10 billion from the Filipino people. As human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings took place, Filipinos were held captive by the Marcoses and their golden lifestyles. They spun tales that both enticed and entranced the Filipino people.

Ferdinand Marcos, dressed in the traditional barong, alongside his wife Imelda Marcos, dressed in a red gown. Photo by Marvin D. Lynchard.

While the Marcos dictatorship was toppled in 1986 due to a civilian-led, peaceful uprising known as the EDSA revolution and the Philippines’ democracy was subsequently reinstated, the consequences of the era of martial law continue today. Through the Marcoses’ employment of historical amnesia, the line between truth and fiction becomes so deeply blurred that the aftermath of several of these myths exists today, weaving themselves into the fabric of Filipinos’ collective memory. To quote Adolf Hitler’s propagandist, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”

For instance, a common assumption about the martial law era is the alleged wealth of the Philippines during that period, leading many to call the martial law years a “golden era.” As a child, I myself heard this belief commonly repeated by my peers. I regarded this statement as pure fact. However, it could not be further from the truth. During the martial law era, six in every ten Filipino families lived in poverty, with “wages dropping and prices skyrocketing,” according to the Martial Law Museum. Additionally, the Philippines’ gross domestic product during the Marcos administration declined, falling at a negative growth rate of 6.86% in 1985 and giving the Philippines the unofficial name of the “Sick Man of Asia.” If the Philippines’ development regressed during the martial years, why exactly was the assumption of a golden era proliferated at such an effective rate? As this particular example has proven, Marcos’ golden myths are embedded into Filipinos’ consciousness, making it extremely difficult to discern the truth from a collective memory that is continually being manipulated.

Historical Amnesia in the May 2022 Elections

The Marcoses’ ability to manipulate Filipinos’ collective memory extends to the present through Bongbong Marcos: the dictator’s son continues to advance his family’s carefully crafted narrative through social media. 

Social media platforms, namely TikTok and Facebook, are Marcos Jr.’s largest platforms for the active proliferation of misinformation. And his team’s efforts to bolster a strong social media presence have substantial quantitative results. Bongbong Marcos’ official TikTok handle (@bongbong.marcos) currently has a total of 1.3 million followers, with his videos gaining an average of more than 100,000 views. Meanwhile, his Facebook page, titled Bongbong Marcos, has accumulated 5.5 million followers. 

TikTok and Facebook’s lenient and ambiguous rules on misinformation make each platform the perfect medium to continue spreading the family’s golden myths, particularly amidst a raging election cycle. Furthermore, the use of both platforms allows Marcos to tap into two different age groups, strengthening his campaign of historical amnesia. Through TikTok, Marcos has been able to tap into the younger generations of Filipinos whose childhoods were unmarred by the martial law era. And through Facebook, Marcos draws in an older generation of adults who may have grown up with martial law but whose collective memory has been reconstructed and effaced until the truth becomes a hazy distant memory. By engaging with both audiences, Marcos has gained success as a presidential candidate and continues to dominate election polls. 

As an example of Bongbong’s nefarious intentions, in January of 2020, Marcos Jr. presciently urged a revision of historical textbooks distributed nationally across Filipino schools. He claimed that the textbooks’ discussions of the martial law years were inaccurate, asserting that the depictions of human rights abuses and corrupt practices were methods of propaganda. To quote Marcos himself, “Who is doing revisionism?” By claiming that textbooks are a form of historical revisionism, and further, that his rivals are employing historical amnesia, Marcos clearly sets an ominous stage for the values and principles that he would herald as a president. 

It has been commonly argued that Bongbong is not a direct reflection of his father, choosing to focus on differing national strategies and instead promote a campaign of “unity.” However, his campaign’s success takes a metaphysical significance, ultimately reflecting the values and historical posteriority of the Filipino people. When the possible fate of a nation lies in the hands of a man who actively seeks to obliterate the memory of his father’s heinous acts, the situation becomes incredibly grave.

Looking to the Future of Filipinos’ Collective Memory

Thus, Bongbong’s conscious efforts to distort historical facts, thereby igniting the phenomenon termed historical amnesia, call attention to the larger significance of history as a function of power within a democracy. To remember how certain historical events happened, what exactly happened, and who it happened to is a form of honoring, of reclamation, and of justice. But more importantly, we should not shy away from history that is unsettling, because it dictates our understanding of the contemporary world. To quote Sioban Nelson’s “Historical Amnesia and Its Consequences,” “even if one is unaware of the historical details, the gestalt has been shaped by that history.” The past continues to inform our current world, proving that historical awareness is integral and relevant in this age of mirrors and smokescreens.

The aftereffects of events as scarring as the Philippines’ rule under martial law reverberate to this day, and we have a moral obligation to remember these events as accurately as possible. As statistics have shown, the human consequence is exhaustive. Between the years 1972 and 1986 there were 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, and 70,000 incarcerations. These numbers are impossible to comprehend and ultimately fail to portray the colossal injustice that many individuals faced during this time period. Like several events in history, many of these individuals’ fates have remained undocumented, overlooked, and disregarded. 

As the May 9th election nears, I urge you all: do not forget. Do not let history repeat itself. The clock is ticking.

Amelie De Leon (BC ‘25) is a staff writer for CPR and political science and film and media studies double major. Her hobbies include curating Spotify playlists, rewatching Gilmore Girls, and reading Haruki Murakami’s novels.