(RE)WRITING FERDINARD E.MARCOS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL REVISIONISM IN PHILIPPINE TEXTBOOKS

Abstract

It is in discursivity in textbook content that historical revisionism, in its pejorative sense, is systematically propagated as truth among impressionable target consumers. Such is the case with Ferdinand E. Marcos whose declaration of Martial Law constitutes much of his legacy of arrogance, self-delusion and plunder. His representations have vacillated between damning to whitewashed in seven state-sponsored Social Sciences textbooks (1987-2010) in the Philippines. Employing critical discourse analysis, I conclude that state ideology can be deduced in the striking correlation between Marcos’ representations in textbooks and the political alignments of the president during the textbooks’ publication years: Marcos is represented positively when the president is politically aligned with him, and negatively when not. Findings suggest unstandardized textbook content across curricula and a shifting perception of the Marcos regime across administrations, both of which constitute the role of education in (un)consciously promoting the socio-political resurgence of the Marcos legacy of corruption, brutality, and impunity normalized as state ideology in the Philippines.