As August has come to an end, so too did the Buwan ng Kasaysayan that is the month long series of activities by the national government together with academic institutions and private organizations to commemorate and showcase the history of the Philippines.
One would expect that this month long affair held every year would instill upon millions of Filipinos the correct appreciation of history. After all, it would feature numerous scholarly conferences, well curated exhibits, in depth historical documentaries, among so many other activities organized by those entities already previously mentioned. A reasonable assumption up until Robin Padilla, who garnered 26,612,434 votes and first place among senatorial candidates during the 2022 elections, opened his mouth during the impeachment proceedings leaving all of many of us remembering that line from Adam Sandler’s 1995 movie, Billy Madison.
“Mr. Madison, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Xuniso Belat vs Vibora
Now that specific incident of Padilla has to do with him arguing that the conjuring up of fictitious and vulgar names to cover up the actual recipient/s of the tens of millions of pesos of funds in highly questionable transactions is of the same moral standing as the use of aliases by Filipino revolutionary heroes to evade detection by the Spanish colonial government.
Listening to him speak so confidently about a highly revered historical issue and associate it with one of the most grotesque scandals of the present was jaw dropping to say the least. It is the height of cringe to claim that the revolutionary alias of Vibora used by General Artemio Ricarte is in the same league as the vulgar Xuniso Belat associated with the questionable fund disbursements at the Office of the Vice President.
Yet Padilla persisted, not caring that he was unfortunately besmirching the memories and legacies of our national heroes. Ironic since he claims that aside from being a communist and Muslim, he is also an advocate of the ideals of the Katipunan.
Padilla cannot seem to connect the considerable amount of bashing that he is getting especially in social media with the absurdity of his statement. Or perhaps he just does not care. In fact, he has doubled down and accused everyone who is criticizing him of being paid trolls which is practically a guarantee that he will continue to issue mind numbing declarations of which no one will benefit from in any intellectual capacity. Predictably, the DDS crowd has closed ranks around him and has resorted to defending what he said about the aliases in ways that also lack any sense of logic thus providing further encouragement to him.
Method to the madness
However, there is a method to the madness of Padilla’s statements. They collectively serve to obfuscate the issue that he wishes to target and that coupled with the DDS machinery produces propaganda that keeps their following convinced of the so called righteousness of their cause. At the same time this confuses those who are unaligned thus making them susceptible to DDS propaganda especially regarding the impeachment trial.
Furthermore, the absurdity of his statements gets picked up by local media who then have to choose between publishing substantive reports on the impeachment or that of Padilla.
Lastly, being constantly in the news and social media makes him visible which will become very useful come 2028 when he most likely will run again for public office.
For a politician who is aware of the political immaturity of the average Filipino voter who chooses on the basis of name recall, popularity, gimmickry, ayuda, and the selling of votes, the saying that “any publicity is good publicity” rings true. In the case of Padilla his antics and his image put him solidly at the top of polls for the 2028 senatorial elections which is something that he can translate into a run for a much higher office, say for example, the Vice Presidency.
Regardless of the amount of bashing Padilla gets online, they are not a reliable determinant of the electoral prospects of a politician the way polling and surveys are which if done by a reputable company do adhere to forms of scientific and scholarly processes.
Anyway, returning to the issue of Padilla besmirching the memory of our national heroes, has there been any considerable pushback from the academic community of historians what with all their influence and organizations? Have they issued collective statements rebuking him for what he said or has it amounted to only individual historians expressing their thoughts online and a few activist civic organizations?
No one is a better guardian of our historical legacy than historians themselves and if they collectively remain silent about this then they only enable the continued debasement of Philippine history by people like Padilla and those throngs of fly by night influencers who peddle misleading garbage on the topic. So far there does not appear to be any statement coming from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines or from any of the history departments of the top academic institutions of the country. Perhaps these institutions have their own reasons to treat it as a non-issue not worthy of their time or are themselves bound by restrictions from above.
It can be frustrating to be a person in the Philippines who chooses history as either an advocacy or as a profession. This is because Filipinos have such short memories and are easily beguiled by those with the gift of gab and charisma. So how can your doctorial dissertation on the interpersonal relations of marginalized indigenous tribes under the watchful eye of the Spanish colonial regime during the 17th Century hope to compete against an influencer backed up by a political camp who coughs up a sensationalist fast paced AI video depicting a totally fabricated account of something masquerading as Philippine history? Guess whose FB posts would be shared by Pinoy netizens and go insanely viral?
This is why we have a number of historians who have advocated for the presentation of history along popular lines to make it more attractive to the average Pinoy in order to combat disinformation. Some of them go to the extent of engaging in polemics in online forums which is truly a daunting, exhausting, and thankless task. It is absolutely no fun to engage in an argument against an anonymous entity who is using a burner account. To adapt the quote of King Theoden of the Lord of the Rings to our context here, we can say “So much garbage! What can mere historians do against such reckless, massive, and organized disinformation?”
The answer is, “We ride out and meet them” head on.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
