Lessons about Martial Law along with ‘complete’ facts and related concepts are to be added to the K to 12 curriculum, said the Department of Education.
This was after Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV raised the issue of historical revisionism that is currently happening not only through social media, but through the books being used at school as well. Recently, there appears to be efforts to mislead the public, especially the youth, into thinking that the country was in its best condition during the Martial Law years. This was reemphasized by Senator Aquino during a senate meeting on Tuesday, September 20, when he read passages from textbooks to the senate which are being used by different schools. The book that he read clearly omits the stories of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family as well as the stories of abuse and human rights violations that were rampant during the Marcos regime.
This matter was handled by DepEd by altering the curriculum framework of the K to 12 program. Undersecretary for curriculum Dina Ocampo showed the updated framework which shows how lessons about martial law has been integrated to subjects being taken by elementary, junior, and senior high school alike.
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The Commission on Human Rights expressed its support to DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education, saying that they will give their full support in order to educate more Filipinos about the true and complete stories during the martial law years.
Furthermore, Bayan Muna party-list representative Carlos Isagani Zarate called out to the Filipinos, especially the millennials, to take steps to counter revisionism especially regarding the horrors experienced by the masses during the Marcos dictatorship.
The best way to counter historical revisionism is through proper education, which will mold the Filipino youth of today into nationalists and critical thinkers. The Filipinos, especially the Filipino youth, must understand that the Marcos regime is far from what others claim as the “golden era” of the Philippines. The horrors brought about by this event does not only exist in history books. Rather, just like how it lives in the hearts of minds of the victims and their families, it must also be engraved in the hearts of the entire Filipino nation.
Sources: (philstar.com, rappler.com)
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