After watching the documentary Imelda, I could see why its namesake wanted the film suppressed. It
is a straightforward, unflinching look at the personal history of former First
Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos— from her “provincial” beginnings in the family
home in Leyte, to her journey to Manila, to her courtship and marriage to
former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, to her twenty years as First Lady of the
Philippines, and up to the present. It is not simply a biography, however;
interspersed with her recollections and the recollections of her close friends
and colleagues are interviews with journalists and the laity, as well as news
clippings and featurettes, which provide a brutal counterpoint to her story.
I won’t go into the particulars of Imelda’s life story,
because that is public consumption and well-known in the Philippines. Instead, I
will focus on what her life means for us as Filipinos and as a society. Her power
and influence as First Lady of the Philippines was incredible, and it cannot be
denied that she left her mark on the cultural, social, political, and
historical landscape of the country. But this mark is perhaps not the mark that
she intended: the documentary pits her obsession with beauty and perfection
together with the actual results of this obsession, which is the widespread
poverty, corruption, and structural violence that still plagues us until the
present day.
Initially I was confused as to what the documentary had to
say about science, technology, and society, but then I realized that it was
providing evidence of how things within society can be so interconnected. Imelda
may have not had anything to do directly with scientific breakthroughs, nor may
she have entered into the wider scientific discourse, but her actions
definitely had repercussions on the scientific community. The cycle of
corruption, for example, was not established by the Marcos family during their
stay in power (which, it could be argued, continues until the present, despite
their supposed fall from grace), but it was definitely perpetuated by them
regardless.
It is this cycle of corruption that has led to a
deprioritization of educational funding, which in turn leads to a dearth of
scientific research conducted by and for the Filipino people. Despite Imelda’s
improvements in the increase in availability and proliferation of
contraceptives and sexual health education, the sheer lavishness and luxury of
her lifestyle at the expense of the nation counterbalances the so-called “innovations”
she instituted. To say that the corruption popularized by the Marcoses is a
stretch and an oversimplification, but definitely their actions have ripple
effects that continue until the present.
2011-02507
Luisa Narciso
No comments:
Post a Comment