
History & Gossip — Kasaysayan at Tsismis
[by Danilo P. Cruz]
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!THEY KEEP HAMMERING that “history is just like tsismis (gossip).”
Indeed, if our own rulers make it a point to destroy that past lest it catches up with them? Which is of course the case today, and cruelly so.
The very beneficiaries of EDSA People Power Revolution I and II want us to forget the things that brought them to power. Now, four regimes — Marcos, Estrada, Macapagal-Arroyo & Duterte aren’t just erasing our past, they are also erasing our instinct to remember.
They could have told us what was wrong with our history? Not at all. How could they have told us what was wrong with EDSA People Power Revolution I when they never knew what was right with it? How can they tell us why EDSA I failed when they cannot see why it succeeded? They just have to look at what’s happening in Sri Lanka now and see why EDSA I succeeded not only in this country but in other countries like Sri Lanka as well.
Any math teacher will tell them that the important thing is not the answer but the solution. They have the right answer but the wrong solution, and the teacher will cross out their answer. With reason: They are no nearer to understanding the world when they began. I wonder how these people got through high school.
But on a broader plane, they are missing the point entirely. History does not only lie in its body, it lies in the Filipino soul.
Of course, our Philippine history was being correlated with gossip or “tsismis.” But you compare facts or data with hearsay or gossip, and you will wonder which is the greater data for decision making.** #DM