Truth versus fake reality

By Artchil B. Fernandez

The truth is not only on trial in the 2022 elections but its very existence is in danger. In this post-truth era, the truth is the first casualty as revealed by the campaign. Nothing demonstrates this clearly than the all-out war against the truth waged by the Marcos family.

The Marcoses are fixated on returning to power since the conjugal dictatorship was overthrown in the 1986 EDSA People Power revolt. Standing in the way of the realization of their obsession is the truth. Hence, killing the truth becomes the top priority of the Marcoses.

For decades, the Marcoses had been trying to create a fake reality not only to obscure the truth about martial law and their high crimes against the Filipino people but to replace it with lies and falsehoods. They have no success with the mainstream media where the ethics of journalism are strictly observed. News organizations placed a high premium on integrity and credibility which prevents them from entertaining lies.

The advent of social media gave the Marcoses the platform to brazenly promote and propagate their fake reality and murder the truth. Ethical standard is not observed in the digital world with its free-for-all feature. Anybody can post anything. The Marcos misinformation and disinformation machine took advantage of this to the fullest.

An army of trolls employed in troll farms and factories was deployed by the Marcoses to forcefully sell their bogus reality to the unsuspecting and undiscerning public. They are at the forefront of spreading fake news and lies.

One truth the propaganda apparatus of the Marcoses tries to erase is the widespread abuses that happened during martial law. One lie that was and still is aggressively propagated and promoted by the Marcoses on social media is “no critics of Marcos were arrested during martial law.” Tsek.ph, a collaborative fact-checking project for the 2022 Philippine elections found that this lie has a staggering 187 million views on social media platforms.

The lie that “no critics of Marcos were arrested during martial law” attempts to delete the truth that widespread and horrendous human rights violations occurred during the Marcos dictatorship. Amnesty International reported that during martial law 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured and over 3,200 people were killed.

Another hoax peddled by the Marcos deception machine is the “golden age” tale when the Marcos dictatorship ruled the country. No data or figures were cited to bolster this fiction. The truth is the opposite. The Philippines was the “sick man of Asia” during the dictatorial rule of Marcos senior.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority and Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics show that the poverty rate of the Philippines in 1985 is 49 percent. Inflation rate in the country rose from 2.7 percent in 1965 when Marcos senior was first elected to 50.3 percent in 1985. The peso’s value against the US dollar plummeted from Php3.91 in 1965 to Php19.03 in 1985. Under Marcos, foreign debt increased fifty-fold from US$599 million in 1965 to US$28.3 billion in 1986.  Do these figures indicate a “golden age?”

The claim of the Marcos propaganda machine of a “golden age” during the Marcos senior years is pure myth, a patent forgery. The Philippines was not the second richest country in Asia, next only to Japan. If this is true, why would millions of Filipinos leave their families and work abroad as domestic helpers, construction workers, dancers and entertainers, seamen, and service workers if the Philippines was richer than Singapore and Hong Kong during the Marcos dictatorship? Common sense is enough to puncture this sham and fabrication.

Yet Bongbong Marcos is shameless in promising of bringing back the non-existing “golden years.”

Perhaps the biggest lie perpetuated by the Marcoses is the Tallano gold fable. To bury the truth that the Marcos family stole an estimated $ 10 billion from the Filipino people, the Tallano gold forgery was fostered on the unsuspecting. There is no royal Tallano family and the kingdom of Maharlika is a work of imagination.

Why would the Tallano family give tons of gold bars to Marcos senior in exchange for his legal service instead of paying the standard professional fee? The Tallanos must be the dumbest, stupidest people in the world to do this. Again, common sense is more than enough to demolish this falsehood and lie of the Marcoses.

What is astounding is a segment of Filipinos is either fooled or deceived by the lies and fiction of the Marcoses. Are they enough in numbers to return the Marcoses to power?  This will be revealed by the outcome of the 2022 election.

The 2022 election pits the truth versus manufactured reality, a fight between fact and fiction, light and darkness. This makes this election an extraordinary one, a pivotal moment in the nation’s history. Will 2022 mark the time Filipinos finally accept and embrace the Marcos lies, either out of sheer stupidity or if they are plainly taken in for a ride? Will lie prevail over the truth?

It appears the fake reality might carry the day due to the well-oiled machinery of lies powered by stolen wealth. However, there is a glimmer of hope with the mighty push back of the truth. Filipinos of goodwill are fighting back, exposing the lies, falsehoods, and fiction of the Marcoses in their own little creative ways. Is the pushback strong enough to defeat the deception and trickery of the unrepentant family who stole and destroyed the life and future of Filipinos for two decades and is now trying to make a comeback?

The 2022 election is indeed a cliff-hanger and keeps everyone on the edge.