A dictatorship during martial law but no Marcos?

A Philippine lawmaker is questioning an alleged Department of Education order changing the term “Diktadurang Marcos” to “Diktadura” in the Grade 6 Araling Panlipunan curriculum of the newly launched Matatag curriculum.

A group of militant and progressive teachers and education workers earlier scored the DepEd order, saying it seeks to downplay the image of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos as dictator following his declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972

"This revision by the DepEd is a clear strategy of the current administration to rehabilitate the dark history of the Marcos family. It is also a blatant example of disinformation, where the people are deliberately misled by manipulating historical facts," the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy said in a statement.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list group Rep. France Castro said the order violates Republic Act No. 10368, the law which provides for "reparation and recognition of victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime, documentation of said violations, and appropriating funds..."

"Parang kumbaga, meron krimen pero sino ang kriminal? Meron magnanakaw pero sino ang magnanakaw? Parang tinatanggal mo at rinerebisa mo ang history. Ito ay insulto sa libo-libong nabiktima ng martial law," she said in a TeleRadyo Serbisyo interview.

She urged the Department of Education not to change the textbooks, saying "as teachers, it is our responsibility to teach the truth about what happened in history."

The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law, meanwhile, slammed the alleged "whitewashing of Marcos dictatorship in Matatag curriculum."

"Who is ultimately responsible for the murders, torture, illegal incarceration, and disappearances of thousands of activists, among them youth leaders, during martial law? Who signed the orders to dissolve Congress and for the military to take over media outlets 50 years ago on September 21, 1972? Who ultimately benefitted from the plunder of our nation’s coffers, burdening Filipinos with debt that will be paid by generations to come? The answer to these questions are simple: the Marcoses," the group CARMMA said.

"It is now undeniable that historical distortion and mass disinformation are being raised to the institutional level. The Marcos Jr. administration is no longer hiding behind its army of online trolls and spin doctors; education is now miseducation. Semantically divorcing the Marcoses from the term 'dictatorship' — in a curriculum, no less — is obviously a calculated and sinister plot to absolve the Marcoses of their brutalities during their despotic rule, especially among our youth."