CHICKENPIEJune 12. Philippine Independence Day. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stood at a podium in Malacañang and told the Filipino people to protect truth from distortion.
He meant every word. That's the part that makes it art.
BBM's address wasn't filler. He invoked the Katipuneros. He warned against revisionism. He called on the next generation to stand guard over the historical record. The crowd applauded with the quiet energy of people who know it's easier not to think too hard about the surname on the speech. The oil portrait of Marcos Sr. on the wall kept its counsel. As it always has.
Let's talk about the Marcos name and truth. During Martial Law, the government rewrote the school textbooks. Torture became "enhanced interrogation." Mass disappearances became "relocation." The 3,257 documented killings became disputed figures. Billions in public funds became the private reserves of one family — the Swiss banks are still, decades later, returning the change. The New Society wasn't built on good governance. It was built on a narrative, and that narrative has been maintained, polished, and distributed with such institutional commitment that a sitting president's election was underwritten by decades of systematic historical memory management.
The Marcos Foundation. The documented ₱958 billion in contested assets. The troll farms — identified by the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center — that ran the most successful political disinformation campaign in Philippine social media history. The Marcos family has invested more money and organizational energy in the management of truth than almost any political dynasty in modern Southeast Asia.
They didn't just distort history. They built infrastructure around it.
So when his son stands at that podium on the 128th anniversary of Philippine independence and says "protect truth from distortion" — that is not hypocrisy.
That is expertise.
You don't warn people about fires unless you know a great deal about how fires start.
Happy Independence Day. The speech was free. The truth is still on layaway.
