In an insanely vain and unremitting attempt at historical revisionism, the Marcoses and their mercenary ‘keyboard trolletariat’ are recycling debunked claims to the manufactured greatness of their custom-made hero, their dear departed deposed dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos. Social media is their favored tool. Social media is likewise their choice arena.

Recently, eagle-eyed VERA Files fact-checking noted recycling a long debunked claim that Ferdinand E. Marcos “had scored the highest mark in the history of the Philippine bar.”…….” for an average of 98.01%.” But for doubts that he cheated or was given test questions in advance, Marcos claims that his average was chopped down to 92.35%. Indeed he was the bar topnotcher in 1939, with that grade. (pp.100, 101 “For Every Tear a Victory, McGraw-Hill, 1964). Marcos claims in a footnote, that his “highest mark” record still stood unsurpassed in 1964!

• VERA Files fact-checking
• Post revives FALSE claim ex-president Marcos scored 98.01% in bar exams

It was not until that ‘commissioned and ghost-written autobiography’ came to be a central talking point of the campaign for the elections of 1965 did Marcos ever make that brazen claim. In hindsight, we can reflect that an absence of vigilance on the part of then-incumbent administration (Macapagal) and the electorate allowed Marcos to win the presidency upon a stack of lies.

Ten years earlier, the reality of incontrovertible facts had already debunked that Marcos claim. For the nth unburnished occasion, here it is: “Highest Grade of All Time: 96.7% in the 1954 Bar Exams by Florenz Regalado; and 2nd Highest grade of all time: 95.95% also in 1954 by Renato L. de la Fuente.” Both of San Beda College. (Source: attyralph.com/tag/bar-topnotchers). Both the Regalado and de la Fuente grades remain unsurpassed records to this day!

Furthermore, at no time in the history of the Philippine Bar Examinations, did 1939 Bar Topnotcher Ferdinand E. Marcos ever hold the record of the “highest mark in the history of the Philippine bar." Earlier, other topnotchers scored higher. 1929 -- Lorenzo Sumulong (UP) 92.5%; 1933 – Lope C. Quimbo (UM) 92.45%; and 1940 Claudio Teehankee (Ateneo) 94.35%.

• Propaganda web: Pro-Marcos literature, sites, and online disinformation linked

Happily, there is now a nook in the University of the Philippines that devotes scholarly effort towards Marcosian fact-checking. This endeavor simply has got to be because despite repeated fact- checking and consequent debunkings, the Marcoses are incessantly still at it! Deceptive “restrospective myth-making” being the most apt description of this Imelda-mandated and -funded legerdemain.
Scholarly vigilance is illustrated by the efforts of the Marcos Regime Research Group in UP’s Third World Studies Center. Researcher Miguel Paolo P. Reyes refers to the aforementioned book, “For Every Tear a Victory,” as one source being mined by Marcos loyalists and allies for propaganda purposes. Speaking at a UP forum (Where’s the lie? Research Findings on Disinformation) last December, Reyes illustrated that such propaganda has “an important influence on the new forms of disinformation that pro-Marcos sites on social media are producing.”

(1/2) TWSC's Marcos Regime Research featured in the recent Social Science Information (Vol. 47-48, 2019-2020) issue of @pssc_official pic.twitter.com/bSuca8EE8I

— UP Third World Studies Center (@UPThirdWorld) February 22, 2021

I thought of sharing these thoughts with you folks after having come across the existence of this UP Research group through another website identified as: “D&D from # FightDisinfo.” It is a recent nationwide consortium on Democracy and Disinformation “network of journalists, academics, bloggers and civil society representatives in the Philippines.”

To inaugurate its advocacy, “D&D” launched a weekly round-up of research and readings on disinformation. I am confident that its findings and conclusion are worthy of our attention and support. Folks, do find the time to log on.

It is safe to estimate that some 60% to 70% of our population today have absolutely no clue what plunder, murder and rapacity befell our country during the dark and bloody martial law years of the Marcoses. They were not yet born. Since Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, our population has more than doubled. These unknowing newly-born minds are the targets of Imelda’s onslaught against the truth. With the untold wealth still at their disposal, these are the minds the Marcoses, (with great assistance from Duterte, the Marcos-financed president, let us never forget), are targeting with disinformation. Let us never lose sight of that because these are also the minds (family, kin, friends and neighbors) we must obligate ourselves to lead towards the truth and the strengthening of our debauched democratic institutions.

Earlier, I alluded to that “commissioned and ghost-written autobiography,” in describing “For Every Tear a Victory.” Next week, I will explain the above phrase, why I so labeled it and share with you some backgrounders and interesting aspects never brought to light before.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tomas 'Buddy' Gomez III began his professional media career in ABS-CBN's (previously Chronicle Broadcasting Network) DZQL-Radio Reloj in 1957, after which he spent 25 years with the Ayala Group.

In 1986, the then Pres. Cory Aquino appointed him Consul General to Hawaii and later served as her Press Secretary.

During the Ramos administration, he was chairman and president of state-owned IBC-13 Network.

After government service, he became an ‘OFW’ in the U.S., working as front-desk clerk and then assistant general manager of a hotel. He also worked as a furniture and antique restoration specialist.

He is now retired and lives in San Antonio, Texas.