Raising concerns on active distortion of the 1986 People Power Uprising, a veteran journalist warned that the battle for democracy now transcends to digital spaces, urging the younger generation to resist systematic “liquidation” of historical memory.

Mindanao Times Editor-in-Chief Amalia Cabusao described historical distortion as a calculated political strategy, far from mere accidental misunderstanding of facts.

“Historical distortion is a deliberate manipulation of the historical record to deceive the public or achieve a specific political, social, or ideological goal,” she said.

She emphasized that the digital landscape has been weaponized, transforming social media platforms into the primary battlefield for perception management.

“In the digital age, disinformation spreads faster than the truth because it is often designed to trigger strong emotions like fear or outrage… Dili na kaayo mag-adto sa dalan… now it’s really inside the house and social media as the platform.”

She further warned of the “Liar’s Dividend,” a cynical byproduct of the deepfake era that allows perpetrators to escape accountability by casting doubt on all visual evidence.

“It is a phenomenon where the public knows deep fakes and manipulated media exist, but the real perpetrators of crimes or scandals can claim that ‘this is not true, that this is fake.”

Cabusao also decried erasing the memory of the martyrs and victims of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Martial Law period, as it serves as the first step of historical liquidation.

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory… History is not a file that we store, history is a fire that we must keep burning,” she stated.

She dissected how revisionist narratives function through oversimplification of the past and weaponizing nostalgia to bury human rights abuses, citing the “Golden Age” myth of the Marcos Sr. era.

“The Golden Age, na selective highlighting infrastructure while erasing human rights records, victim blaming, referring to historical villains as heroes and victims as instigators… Why does historical distortion work? Kay it simplifies complex history into emotional bite-sized secrets the mainstream media won’t tell you.”

1986 People Power as a national uprising 

In the Philippine historical narrative, the 1986 People Power Uprising is often mischaracterized as an uprising restricted exclusively to Metro Manila.

Ateneo de Davao University President Fr. Karel San Juan, SJ, challenged the prevailing myth of the 1986 uprising being an isolated event confined to the nation’s capital, reminding that the struggle was a collective national movement.

“EDSA was a natural event; it was a culmination, or even a peak moment in the long, drawn struggle for the people of democracy,” San Juan said.

He asserted that calling the 1986 Power Revolution solely an EDSA uprising is a form of disinformation that diminished the local resistance against the dictatorship.

“So one thing guys, that you have to be clear about is to fight disinformation, and one of the disinformation is EDSA is just a Manila event… people  in solidarity with what was happening in Manila, but even then it was a natural consequence of many other things.”

San Juan expressed his faith in the Dabawenyo youth, predicting they would mobilize if democracy faced renewed threats.

“I’ve mentioned these things because I believe that if the same situation happened today, in the National Capital Region or even Davao City, or even in the other parts of the country, I am very very sure that you guys will be out there doing your own EDSA,” he concluded.

The “People Power in the Age of Disinformation” forum took place on February 25 at 4F Martin Hall, Ateneo de Davao University.