MANILA ¨C They bopped along to the beat of a martial law anthem updated into a pop tune. They cheered when an A-list celebrity proclaimed that the spirit of Ferdinand E. Marcos, the former dictator, was alive. And when Marcos¡¯ son and namesake held up the peace sign made popular by his father a generation ago, the shrieking crowds mirrored it in return.
It is election season in the Philippines, and history is being rewritten, one campaign rally at a time.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has spent decades defending his family¡¯s name against accusations of greed and corruption and downplaying the legacy of his father¡¯s brutal rule. During his presidential campaign, he has portrayed himself as a unifier, while false narratives online reimagine his father¡¯s regime as a ¡°golden era¡± in the nation¡¯s history.
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