The Philippine government faced a backlash Monday over claims it was trying to whitewash the history of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Critics said a series of edits to the Facebook page of the country's official government record were an attempt to put a positive gloss on years of authoritarian rule.

Among changes that sparked fury over the weekend was the claim that Marcos imposed martial law in 1972 to deal with Muslim secessionists and a communist insurgency.

Opponents charge Marcos declared martial law to keep himself in power. They also say he threw opposition figures in jail and plundered state coffers.

The gazette also said he gave up his role in 1986 to "avoid bloodshed"; historians agree he reluctantly fled in the face of massive popular opposition.

"The caption should have been "Ferdinand Marcos stole $10 billion dollars worth from Filipinos, had 34,000 Filipinos tortured, had 3,240 Filipinos murdered, and was so hungry for power he tried to stay dictator for life," one angry commentator posted on Facebook.

The furore is the latest chapter in a struggle over the national narrative in a fiercely partisan country, where power has traditionally been passed among a small number of elite families.

Controversial President Rodrigo Duterte -- a Marcos ally -- has reignited squabbles over Marcos' legacy with a plan to bury his embalmed body in the "Cemetery of Heroes".

Mainstream historians agree that Marcos's 21-year rule was a dark period for the Philippines; a time when extra-judicial killings, disappearances and corruption were the norm.

Most Filipinos lived in grinding poverty, even as the president and his family grew wealthy -- a gulf symbolised by the discovery of thousands of pairs of luxury shoes in the first lady's living quarters.

"We are not in the business of revising history," assistant press secretary Ramon Cualoping insisted Monday in response to the outcry.

"The Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines is devoid of any political colour and affiliations," he added.

The government later revised the entry to say only that Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and went into exile in the United States in 1986.

Marcos died in 1989 and his family was later allowed to return to the Philippines where they have made a remarkable political comeback, with several members getting elected to major positions.

Duterte, who styles himself as an anti-corruption crusader, is a close ally of the Marcos family and credits them for his election as president in May. </s> The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has long been a bastion of anti-Beijing rhetoric with long standing ties to pro-British factions in Hong Kong. Although the SCMP is now owned by the Alibaba Group of Jack Ma, the editorial line has if anything become more brazen and provocative than under its former owners.

But beyond attacking the Chinese government, the SCMP has taken a radically liberal/yellow line on Philippine politics with President Rodrigo Duterte being a favourite target of abuse. Of course the editorial line of the SCMP is not the concern of the Philippine government, but when the newspaper spreads outrageous and unsubstantiated allegations about the Philippine President it is only fitting and proper for the government to raise an official complaint against the newspaper.

On the 3rd of October, the SCMP published a piece by resident Duterte hater Raissa Robles entitled, “Philippines plans law to give Duterte Marcos-like powers”. Virtually everything Robles writes is contrary to the reality of the political situation in The Philippines. According to Robles,

“The death penalty will be restored. Torture, allowed. Filipinos could be jailed for their posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Suspected terrorists and even “unwilling witnesses” could be arrested without warrants and detained for 30 days without charge during an “actual or imminent terrorist attack”.

These are just some of the amendments proposed by Philippine security officials to the current Human Security Act of 2007 or Republic Act 9372″.

The facts tell a different story. While President Duterte has stated that he is in favour of restoring capital punishment (something that has been done before in recent Philippine history) and while Congress passed a bill authorising the re-institution of the death penalty, the Senate has effectively left the bill in legislative purgatory. Little progress on the issue has been made as a result and as things stand, capital punishment does not exist in The Philippines.

Secondly, no one anywhere in Philippine politics is discussing jailing anyone over social media posts. The fact that Filipinos are among the most active social media posters in the world indicates that if anything, the online freedoms of Filipinos are only expanding. As for detaining terrorists for longer periods of time, two Senators, neither of whom are members of President Duterte’s PDP-Laban party have introduced proposals for increasing the detention time of suspected terrorists in light of recent jihadist bombings in Mindanao.

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Gregorio Honasan have proposed expanding the period which suspected terrorists can be detained from a mere three days to thirty, thus bringing The Philippines in-line with most moderate international standards. The proposals also include some modest beefing up of intelligence gathering activities in respect of anti-terror police.

It is also crucial to remember that these proposals appear to be a long way from becoming law. While the SCMP piece claims that these proposals are far more severe than they are, while falsely ascribing them to the President, the reality is that the Presidential administration has said that Duterte is not going to declare nation wide martial law nor anything remotely similar as it is President Duterte’s view that the ongoing red-yellow conspiracy to bring down his presidency seeks to provoke the President into declaring martial law. Therefore, Duterte has made it clear that he has no intention of playing into the hands of the conspirators.

While President Duterte is in favour of a tough approach to cracking down on jihadist and far-left terrorism, the article does not accurately reflect the ways in which the Presidential administration seeks to implement a tougher stance on both local and internationally affiliated terror groups including Daesh (ISIS) which currently has cells active in Mindanao.

By publishing such a provocative piece that totally misrepresents the reality in of President Duterte’s security aims, the SCMP has insulting the integrity of The Philippine nation and of all of Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s millions of supporters. Not only should the newspaper retract its allegations but its editorial staff and owners should apologise to President Duterte in writing for insulting his dignity and misrepresenting his policies.
The communication channel of the Philippine government is under scrutiny after an apparent whitewash and historical revisionism of the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship.