A space for truth-telling.
This is the aim of the Martial Law Mobile Gallery: The Ten Essential Truths (ML Mobile Gallery) that the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Media and Communication (CMC) Library hosted in remembrance of the ML declaration 54 years ago.
According to the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVVMC), the use of the interactive installation from its The Freedom Memorial Museum Gallery “hopes to provide spaces for memory and truth-telling; continuously debunking common and widespread misinformation about the human rights violations and atrocities committed during the 1972-1986 ML period.”
The ML period is said to have continued until 1986 because human rights abuses persisted even after the ML lifting on 17 Jan. 1981.
The ML Mobile Gallery featured 10 essential truths that corresponded with the 10 key aspects of the Marcos dictatorship: ML declaration, economy, human rights, institutions of faith, rule of law, corruption, environment, media, protest art and culture, and people power.
The CMC Library hosted the travelling exhibition, in partnership with the HRVVMC, from Sept. 17 to 18 at the CMC Main Building Lobby. The CMC also partnered with the UPD Center for Ethnomusicology in promoting the two-day event.
“As a college, and this is I think something that we have to work on, we have to fully flex our academic and authorial muscle to add to the national body of literature or work, to retrieve, examine, and critic ML,” said CMC Dean Maria Diosa D. Labiste. “Part of that work is archiving, we understand that, but a great deal should be writing books, monographs, and textbooks to supply the truth about the lies of the Marcoses and to make them, as a family, accountable for the crimes that they have committed,” she added.
The exhibit aimed to bring the lessons and realities of the ML period closer to the UP community and the general public, mainly through its interactive printmaking installation. The installation was conceptualized by ML survivor and Filipino social realist artist Edgar “Egai” Talusan Fernandez in collaboration with artist collective Ang Gerilya.
HRVVMC Acting Executive Director Lawrence Charles E. Salazar said, “this exhibition to CMC amidst our national commemoration of the 54th year marking the declaration of ML this September holds vital and urgent significance.”
Salazar’s message was read by James Barbee A. Olaivar, officer-in-charge of the HRVVMC Museum Division.
For his part, Olaivar said, “we stand today in a sanctuary of truth and storytelling in an era where history is relentlessly challenged, diluted, and distorted. Media and communication serve as a frontline defense. Freedom of expression and the integrity of information are not abstract concepts. They are hard won rights paid for by those who resisted tyranny.”
Quoting journalist Marcelo B. Soriano, Labiste said the media professionals in the Philippines during the ML had “anxiety [as] a bedtime companion. Anxiety for waiting for their time to receive arrest, get actually arrested, and detained.”
“Ang tema nito, Remembering is Resisting, ay nagpapaalala sa atin ng kahalagahan at pag-unawa sa ating kasaysayan, lalo na para sa ating mga kabataan. Sa pamamagitan ng mga salaysay, dokumento, at iba pang materyal na makikita rito, mayroon tayong pagkakataong matuto, magnilay, at higit na maunawaan ang ating nakaraan,” said CMC Library Head Gladys A. Florendo. “Bilang isang kolehiyong nakatuon sa midya at komunikasyon, kinikilala rin natin ang ating pananagutan na pangalagaan ang mga kuwento, pahalagahan ang mga ebidensiya, at itaguyod ang mapanuring pag-iisip,” she added.
The two-day exhibit also featured the HRVVMC Library’s curated display of Filipiniana resources on ML, such as featured books on journalism, media, and the press highlighting their role in documenting history and preserving public history; and a compendium of the HRVVMC Research and Education Division. Meanwhile, the CMC Library also curated publications and newspapers on ML.
The HRVVMC publications, including The Ten Essential Truths, can be accessed through this link: https://hrvvmc.gov.ph/hrvvmc-publications/, while The Freedom Memorial Museum Gallery and its catalogue can be accessed here: https://hrvvmc.gov.ph/the-freedom-memorial-museum-gallery/.
The forum Laban sa Paglimot: A Lecture on Historical Documentation and Media Representation of Martial Law, with HRVVMC history researcher Alfred Mendiola as speaker was also held on Sept. 18.
