Remembering Martial Law: An Eco-System of Truth Initiatives and the Emergence of Narrative Documentation in the Philippines

Abstract

In the Philippines, governmental and civil society actors installed a range of mechanisms to deal with violent legacies of the Marcos regime. Formal truth-telling mechanisms were, however, not part of the early transitional justice architecture, meaning that truth-seeking initially took place as part of other justice efforts. Nonetheless, more recently, a boom in truth, documentation and memorialization processes has resulted in a dynamic eco-system of formal and informal truth initiatives, dealing with Martial Law as well as other violent legacies. This article argues that this eco-system of truth initiatives underlines the importance and potential of foregrounding the dissemination of truths through a decentralized approach to truth-telling, as well as the potential of ‘narrative documentation’ in doing so. I then explore how this eco-systemic approach to truth-telling, and the narrative documentation used as part of it, can be a meaningful strategy in the face of ongoing disinformation campaigns.