The fight for who gets to tell the final version of the Philippines’ history has opened a new front, with two polarising films offering different versions of the past released in cinemas.
“This project is one of the sub-programmes of their technology of disinformation,” says Edward Delos Santos Cabagnot, who teaches film-related courses at the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University, and DLS-College of Saint Benilde. “I am not trying to rewrite history or revise anybody’s version. For me the truth is that I’m not in EDSA. That’s why the truth is that I don’t have the right to talk about EDSA,” she told a talkshow. “I have the right [to talk about what happened] in Malacañang. They are not in Malacañang. I was in Malacañang.”
The film’s trailer drew sharp criticism from the Carmelite nuns of Cebu, who in 1986 sheltered then opposition leader CorazonCory” Aquino after she ran against Marcos and believed her life was in danger. Less than three years earlier, her husband, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, had been assassinated after attempting to return from exile.