There’s great danger when we tamper with historical facts, warned American journalist George Packer. “’When facts become fungible,” he wrote,”we’re lost”.
Our narratives are directional, like a moral compass that guides us how to move from Point A to Point B. If we deviate from the moral, selfless path, it will take us a longer time before we reach our destination. Or, worse, never. Politics and pride may detour us, as they have apparently had for the longest time. The sooner we realize we have slid off the right track, the better.
Defining ourselves as a nation in these terms in light of the ongoing attempts – apparently succeeding— should force us to reflect on its future. While more than 31 million Filipinos have obviously acquiesced, if not consented, to this dubious attempts, the rest should be mindful of the historical, if not existential, downside of such insidious efforts.
Nations, like individuals, Packer insisted, tell stories – or narratives – that address their deepest needs and desires”. The preamble to our Constitution, the 1987 Constitution, reflect those narratives, those shared realities and visions. Unfortunately, politics tends to upset or upend them.
In this context, the heart and soul of the Constitution is tinkered with, without so much as changing a letter and virtually reduced to or ignored as a mere scrap of paper. There’s harm but no foul called. The nation is downsized as a caboose of helpless spectators or kibitzers.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets in the way.
Today, even as more people are getting swayed by the forward-looking influence of a new
president, even as the nation continues to cope and grapple with the combined ill-effects of the pandemic, rising cost of living and bad governance, a narrative- changing push is done in earnest while most people look the other way for existential, practical reasons.
“Maid in the Philippines”, a commercial film project being identified with Sen. Imee Marcos, is presented to the public as “the truth” when the late Cory Aquino challenged the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. for the presidency in the 1986 snap presidential election. In particular, a scene where the late Cory was shown playing mahjong with nuns in Cebu while hiding from those allegedly out to eliminate her, has triggered vehement reactions from those who knew “ the real truth”.
It’s not fair, to say the least, and very un-Filipino.
When Cory ran in the 1986 snap presidential race, a nasty tag dogged her feverish campaign: TWA, “talagang walang alam”. Why, she hadn’t been anything, not even as a barangay exec , but just a plain housewife. No issue about her love for mahjong or that she spoke French- the ultimate elitista. She proved – shamed, in fact –her detractors wrong into exile. The subtle revenge is evident. Revenge is best served cold, so goes an adage.
In 1987, she sued popular columnist Louie Beltran for libel over a piece that claimed she hid under her bed during a coup in Malacanang. To defend herself, she showed a reporter that there was no space under her bed to hide. Pure lie. But not malicious, clarified Beltran, figurative and not literal ,to drive home the point that things were real scary at the time. In any case, it reinforced the growing public perception of a woman president who was weak and indecisive.
A lower court vindicated Cory. Beltran lost the case, dragging his publisher, Maximo Soliven, in its wake: two years in jail. The Court of Appeal eventually reversed the decision, giving Beltran a post- humus verdict.
The diatribes, personal and political, came when she could very well defend herself in a
democratic setting, although she had her share of disappointments with the local media. But now she’s dead, and she can’t. Her children apparently will not, or could not. Her son, a former president like herself, has the silence of the grave. Her youngest and most popular – controversial- is fighting a battle with a rare nervous disease. The other daughters are mum. For now.
Other voices have joined the mixed , conflicting chorus about the mahjong tale. Former senator and now presidential legal counsel Johnny Enrile has chimed in by saying that many people knew Cory played mahjong. He didn’t say he saw it with his own eyes the scene played out in the “ Maid” that Cory had a great time with the nuns.
Cory must have the nerves of steel, indeed. Here she was, fighting a Quixotic battle against a political Goliath, hiding in a convent from some evil men out to take her out for good, but decided having fun with nuns with curlers hanging on her hair like eaves was good decoy. Tsismis noon, kasaysayan ngayon.
In the meantime, talks are that the” Maid” is doing well at the tills, especially with the support of old time political pals like San Juan Mayor Francis Zamora who reportedly bought 5,000 tickets and gave them away to his constituents, presumably so they can reevaluate history in the light of the Marcoses’ long political saga.
Obviously, they’re back. The son is the new president, the daughter a top senator and other members of the hegemonic clan winning local positions as well. Loyal followers are all agog to queue for tickets to the “Maid”, courtesy of Madam Imee – never mind the price. Once upon a time, a lawyer was asked by Supreme Court Chief Justice Ike Fernando why P20 million was given by a farmers’ organization to build the coconut palace. “Who can say ‘no’ to the First Lady?”, the lawyer answered. “ And you think that is a valid legal argument?,” Fernando pressed. “
“The point is not simply to change narrative”, Jean Michel Hansen said. “The point is to
exchange false narrative for the truth.” Filmmaker like Director Joel Lamangan is not taking the “Maid” narrative sitting down. He has vowed to do a film about the truth on the alleged Cory mahjong tale in Cebu. He’ s upping the ante and he’s rattling the track.
