Submitted on: 21.08.2017 From Collecting to Tracing Documentary Realities: The Intertextuality of “New Society” Iyra S. Buenrostro Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University, Singapore E-mail address: [email protected] Copyright © 2017 by Iyra S. Buenrostro. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Abstract: State-produced published documents during Martial Law in the Philippines from 1972-1981 are examined through intertextuality. Under the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, his vaunted ideology of Bagong Lipunan or New Society was foisted on the Philippines. Until now, this period is still highly contested. Opposing views and memories of this era have emerged. Through the engagement of librarians in bringing forth new knowledge and social memory, they are transforming their role from being keepers and collectors of information to mediators and educators that help raise public awareness. This paper demonstrates how librarians can take part in the discourse by analysing documents, especially those that are considered crucial for the reconstruction of memory and history. Keywords: Martial Law, New Society, document analysis, intertextuality Introduction A library can have multiple voices reverberating from its collection and interpretations it evokes. Aside from collecting materials, librarians have a role in creating a ‘free’ space for various voices and non-monolithic discussions from and/or about certain library materials or documents relating to a disputed phase in history. For generations, librarians and libraries may have been expected to be neutral information institutions with apolitical stance, but Chaparro-Univazo (2007) argues that “there is nothing more political than organizing and disseminating information” (p.34). In creating a space where rational deliberations can happen, librarians can start analyzing documents and open the doors for the investigation of truth and dissemination of more novel information. Through the engagement of librarians in bringing forth new knowledge and social memory, they are transforming their role from being keepers of information to mediators and educators that help raise public awareness. This role is vital especially in understanding a conflict-ridden historical and public memory. For this paper, four state-produced publications during Martial Law in the Philippines from 1972- 1981 are examined. These are the first four in the series of publications produced by the National Media Production Center (NMPC) which are still available at the Filipiniana Section of the University of the Philippines Library: One Year of the New Society (1973), The Philippines: A Nation Reborn (1976), Notes on the New Society of the Philippines II: The Rebellion of the Poor (1976), and Primer: Notes on the New Society (1976). As these were originally published to serve as information sources to disseminate the regime’s ideology, it is worth knowing how the Marcos government 1 intended to portray itself and mold social memory. This is crucial in constructing memories and history, especially that the country has endured the dictatorial regime’s consequences such as billions of debts, failed truth commission, thousands of deaths and unresolved human rights violations. Nunca más (?): Memories of Martial Law in the Philippines Through Proclamation No. 1081, the late president Ferdinand Marcos put the Philippines under martial rule and publicly declared it on national television on the evening of September 23, 1972.1 The Marcos government justified the declaration of Martial Law as its constitutional response to the prevailing disturbances and nationwide unrest brought by threats to the country’s security, outbreak of communism, instability in Mindanao, series of demonstrations and riots, and the alleged ambush of the then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile (Brilliantes, 1987). In 1986, the People Power Revolution, also known as EDSA Revolution, ended Marcos’ two-decade rule. The battle cry, ‘never again’ or nunca más serves as the unifying theme in the remembrance of Marcos period and reflects human rights activities and efforts to make healing possible and be discussed in public spaces (Claudio, 2010). However, this battle cry still does not solidify the whole country’s view on this period and the Marcoses. It has only unified certain sectors that were directly opposing Marcos’ dictatorship. Various memory sites and publications even more polarize people’s perspectives and recollections of this period. For instance, museums and monuments memorializing and praising Ferdinand Marcos and his family in his hometown in Sarrat and Batac, Ilocos Norte are frequented by the locals and tourists. On the other hand, there are exhibitions, memorial sites and initiatives to seek justice for the victims and not forget the atrocities committed under Marcos dictatorship. In the last national elections on May 2016, the dictator’s son and namesake, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., almost won the vice-presidential race – losing by only 1% of the total votes (“#PHVote 2016 Official Election Results”, 2016). This shows that the Marcos’ popularity and influence are still alive until now. Months after, under the present administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the remains of the former president Marcos were buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Heroes Cemetery despite the long years of opposition from the victims, survivors, and human rights defenders. This controversial burial drew protests from the side of the dictator’s victims and Marcos opponents (Paddock, 2016). These are just some of the recent events that show how divided Filipinos are on this issue. Documents, Memories, and History Founded in 1954, the National Media Production Center’s (NMPC) 2 mandate was to produce information and educational materials about the government. Under the Martial Law years, NMPC was converted into a “well-endowed agency and used for political propaganda and image-building” (Rosario-Braid & Tuazon, 1999, p. 304). As the international press kept an eye on the events and actions of the government and the situation of the country during Marcos regime, there were attempts from the Marcos government’s public relations to improve its own image by giving an impression to outside observers that the regime’s reforms ensued a new atmosphere of peace, orderliness, discipline, economic advances, and political stability (Fagan, 1975/2000). These widely distributed documents are not only sites used to convey information but these are where memories crystallize, which have the possibility of being considered as valid sources and representations of collective memory and history. These sites of memory, according to Pierre Nora (1989), help us remember and reconstruct the past. As sites that mediate collective memory, these documents are products of premeditated accumulation of knowledge that are affected by external factors such as politics. Foucault (1969/2002) maintains that “the document is not the fortunate tool of 1 Primitivo Mijares, Marcos’ former pressman, detailed how Marcos disclosed to a convention of historians that he signed the proclamation on September 17. Marcos publicly announced the implementation of Martial Law on September 23. For further reading on Marcos’ dictatorship, read Primitivo Mijares, The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos (San Francisco: Union Square Pub., 1976). 2 It was abolished after the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986. The succeeding president, Corazon Aquino, founded Philippine Information Agency (PIA). For more information about the PIA, visit http://pia.gov.ph/. 2 a history that is primarily and fundamentally memory; history is one way in which a society recognizes and develops a mass of documentation with which it is inextricably linked” (p.7). The current history or the actual societal condition and forces mold what a document should contain and how it would be used and interpreted at a given time. Hence, documents shape history, and vice versa. Document is a cultural artifact used to understand ourselves and our position in this society (Brennen, 2013). Methodology This study employs document analysis through intertextuality to see the alleged reality or ‘voice’ behind the New Society. For the confines of this paper, those that were released during the formative years of Martial Law were chosen. Mircea Eliade affirms that the most significant part of any society’s past is its beginnings because this ‘strong time’ provides the ‘receptacle’ of a new creation (cited in Schwartz, 1982). What had transpired in the society’s beginnings could elucidate the society’s present and give a glimpse of the future. Intertextuality for Librarians Intertextuality has extended its scope from being used in literary criticism to document analysis. The term intertextuality was firstly used by poststructuralist theorists and critics to perturb the concept of having fixed meaning and objective interpretation (Allen, 2011). ‘Text,’ according to Elkad-Lehman & Greensfeld (2011), came from the Indo-Iranian word ‘tec’, meaning handicraft, especially weaving. In Latin, the word ‘textus’ means a woven fabric, and the verb ‘texere’ means to weave or to combine. Texts in documents, therefore, do not construct their own static systems or domains of documentary reality; instead, they also refer to other texts and documents (Atkinson & Coffey,