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Ito ang buod ng open letter ng Ateneo Martial Law Museum hinggil sa kontrobersiyal na interview ni Toni Gonzaga kay Bongbong Marcos, anak ni dating Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos.
Kinastigo nito ang actress-TV host dahil naging kasangkapan umano ang YouTube vlog ni Toni para sa “whitewashing” ng human rights violations at katiwalian ng dating diktador, ang nakatatandang Marcos.
Bahagi ng open letter ng Martial Law Museum kay Toni noong September 15: “Your show has contributed to the Marcos family’s attempts to whitewash their human rights violations and its proven historical record.
“Marcos is a lying clout chaser, desperate to change public opinion about historical facts as he has neither history nor truth to his side.”
Inanyayahan rin ng Martial Law Museum si Toni na interviewhin ang mga biktima ng batas militar at ang kanilang mga pamilya para sa kanilang panig.
Ang nakatatandang Marcos ay nanungkulan ng 21 taon, mula 1965 hanggang 1986.
Isinailalim niya ang Pilipinas sa batas militar mula September 21, 1972 hanggang January 17, 1981.
Napatalsik ang diktadurya ni Marcos nang maganap ang makasaysayang EDSA Revolution o People Power noong February 1986.
Ayon sa Amnesty International report noong 1982, 70,000 katao ang ikinulong, 34,000 ang tinorture, at 3,240 ang pinatay sa Pilipinas mula 1972 hanggang 1981.
Ang Amnesty International ay isang non-profit global movement na kinabibilangan ng mahigit 10 million people mula sa150 countries and territories. Ang layunin nito ay wakasan ang pang-aabuso sa human rights.
THE ATENEO MARTIAL LAW MUSEUM
Sa open letter, ipinaliwanag ng Ateneo Martial Law Museum ang adhikain nito.
“We are the Ateneo Martial Law Museum, a digital museum housed in the School of Social Sciences of the Ateneo de Manila University.
“Our mandate is to teach the public about our history under the Marcos regime, and to take a stand against attempts to undermine our democracy through the distortion of our dark past under the Marcos regime.”
Ngayong buwan ng Setyembre, ginugunita ang ika-49 anibersaryo ng batas militar at ang mga hindi malilimutang paglabag sa karapatang pantao sa ilalim ng pamumuno ng dating diktador.
Layunin ng Martial Law Museum na i-educate ang current at future generation para hindi maulit ang panahon ng martial law, "which violates human rights, plunders people's wealth, and buries the truth, whoever the leader is.”
Nakasaad pa sa website nito na martiallawmuseum.ph: “The Martial Law Museum aims to be a comprehensive online learning resource that our community of educators can use to teach the values of human rights, freedom, democracy and engaged citizenship to Filipino students through factual and engaging storytelling."
Ang digital museum ay binubuo ng community educators at citizens na ang hangad ay ituro ang mga lessons na natututunan noong panahon ng martial law.
Ipinagmamalaki ng digital museum na hitik ito sa information at facts.
“Spanning more than 300 references and 100 consultations with experts, our research has produced 25 exhibits on different dimensions of the dictatorship and the lessons we can learn from our history as Filipinos.
“We have worked with more than 300 teachers from 32 different institutions to test and develop our lesson plans and exhibits. We are developing more.”
Ang website ay compilations ng mga research, artikulo, essays, literary works, at links ng webinars na may kinalaman sa martial law para sa edukasyon ng reader o netizens.
Ini-launch ang Ateneo Martial Law Museum noong September 16, 2017 sa Escaler Hall sa Ateneo de Manila University.
Nagbigay noon ng makabuluhang pahayag ang speaker na si Dr. Maria Serena I. Diokno, professor sa Department of History mula sa University of the Philippines.
Si Diokno ay dati ring chair ng National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
Aniya noon, “French historian Pierre Nora puts it best when he said, ‘To claim the right to memory is, at bottom, to call for justice.'
“So, as one end of the historical spectrum seeks vindication, honor even, for the late dictator, the other end chooses to remember in order to heal still-raw wounds. Or take closure. Maybe solicit atonement—although that does not seem at all likely.
“Or make any repetition of the past impossible, as expressed in the phrase never again.
“Politically speaking, it is that under conditions of terror, most people will comply. But some people will not.
“Just as the lesson to the countries, to which the Final Solution was proposed, is that it can happen in most places, but it did not happen everywhere.”
Ang sabi pa ni Diokno tungkol sa digital museum, “Your museum demonstrates that holes of oblivions do not exist in our country.
“That there are Filipinos who still refuse to comply, and will not remain silent. Either about the past or about the creeping authoritarianism of the present.
“It is, in fact, this present that we live in that compels us to remember our past.
“What you have established is not a mere pocket of memory. But an entire boundless chamber of remembrance that educates, empowers, and offers hope."
“Thank you, Ateneo.”