If there’s one person who’s exhilarated right now after the blunder of actress-dancer Ella Cruz, it would certainly be Darryl Yap, the controversial director who’s set to release the horrific film, “Maid in Malacañang,” aimed at discrediting the Edsa People Power Revolution that toppled the Marcos family in 1986.
Asked about what she learned from playing the role of Irene Marcos, the third child of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Ms. Cruz, seemingly in shameless fashion, downgraded history as mere gossip.
“History is like tsismis. It is filtered and dagdag na rin, so, hindi natin alam what is the real history. Andoon na iyong idea, pero may mga bias talaga. As long as we’re here alive at may kanya-kanyang opinion, I respect everyone’s opinion,” she said.
“Kasi struggling na eh, last three days! Kahit naman sila struggling even right now, di ba? So, paano kaya iyon na there [was] so much pressure on their side during those times,” she added.
History is an evidence-based discipline that studies the human past as written in documents left behind. It makes us cognizant of our society’s rise and fall, aspirations and frustrations, triumphs and failures.
Looking deeper with this flub, however, paints a startling picture that Mr. Marcos’s loyalists perhaps are now ready to reject history and journalism as disciplines of truth-telling, bedazzled by the magic of disinformation that appealed to their emotional senses. That the vloggers, in their view, are now the reliant truth-tellers working against the establishment and the academe.
In his four-series article, “The Philippines A Century Hence,” Jose Rizal demonstrated his ability to predict the future by looking back at the long and arduous history of the Filipinos during the Spanish era.
“[I]t is not well to trust to accident, for there is sometimes an imperceptible and incomprehensible logic in the workings of history. Fortunately, peoples as well as governments are subject to it,” he wrote.
Historians scour documents to find the right answers. They are trained to sift fact from fiction. Regardless of the level of disturbance that the truth may bring to them personally, history majors weave the Filipino story to serve as a guide for present and future generations.
Ms. Cruz’s statement is not only sheer stupidity but an outright denigration of the academe devoted to fostering historical scholarship. It could also be considered a calumny for reducing historians to Mariteses, which can perpetuate falsehoods without accountability (I’m looking at you, Cristy Fermin!).
If any, Ms. Cruz’s foolish statement is a publicity stunt to create noise for her film. Viva Films honcho Vic Del Rosario Jr. is confident – perhaps, overconfident – that “Maid in Malacañang” will be the most-watched movie on its streaming platform, Vivamax, ever. If the people behind it are self-assured that most of the 31 million who voted for Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will watch the film, why would the young actress subject herself to an intense backlash to promote it?
Looking deeper with this flub, however, paints a startling picture that Mr. Marcos’s loyalists perhaps are now ready to reject history and journalism as disciplines of truth-telling, bedazzled by the magic of disinformation that appealed to their emotional senses. That the vloggers, in their view, are now the reliant truth-tellers working against the establishment and the academe.
It reminds me of Richard Nixon, the disgraced U.S. president so obsessed with the presidency that he made no secret of his contemptuous relationship with the press and the academe: “Never forget, the press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. Professors are the enemy. Write that on the blackboard 100 times and never forget it.” Nixon resigned in 1974 after his slimy deeds were exposed by the institutions he hated.
This is the behavior that the Marcos administration wants to inculcate in the people: Because the truth is unflattering to their dynasty, institutions are conspiring against them to dig dirt and, eventually, destroy them.
It will be no surprise if, by the end of Mr. Marcos Jr.’s term, the words of historians, journalists and academicians will be reduced to mere noise.
Ms. Cruz probably generated much interest that could elevate her status from being, in some’s view, a long-running starlet. If she did this on purpose, she’s a nincompoop. If she truly believed that historians are gossipers, she’s a pitiful nincompoop.
Featured image from Kapamilya Online World’s Facebook page.
The Edj View 