During
the campaign of long-time mayor of Davao City Rodrigo Duterte to become
president of Philippines in 2016, perhaps the most powerful tool employed by
his supporters was social media. Rumor has it that an army of online trolls
were employed to extol Duterte, as well as attack his critics. When he became
president, social media became a promotional machine and a weapon, targeting
dissenting voices and praising his controversial policies and pronouncements,
often in the most vicious ways including the fabrication of fake news. One of
Duterte’s most controversial actions is his support for the family of and his
admiration for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, shrugging off the horrendous
human rights violations committed during martial law. He also did not keep
secret his inclination towards martial rule. This led to the secretive burial
of the former president at the Libingan ng mga Bayani with full military honors
on November 18, 2016, despite protests, as well as a blatant disregard for the
truth and a flippant attitude towards martial law atrocities, promoted by
online trolls and echoed and believed by supporters, many of them millennials,
who pooh-poohed the abuses on human rights and see this episode, though
comparatively a recent one, as a dusty and negligible piece of history, if they
weren’t totally ignorant of it. The online trolls also went as far to further
the mission of rehabilitating the image of Marcos.
Many
Filipinos were alarmed by this turn of events, among them artists who protest
this atrocious revision of history through art. One of the notable works to
come out recently is the stage musical A Game of Trolls by the
Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), which is currently
celebrating its 50th year and was recently honored with a Ramon Magsaysay
Award.
A
Game of Trolls is
affirmation of the artist-teacher group’s continuous commitment of using
theater for social change and justice. PETA has been known for advancing
progressive theater, as well as a breeding ground of many of the country’s
respected theater and film artists. It has struggled for freedom of expression
and has led in many cultural protests during the Marcos dictatorship.
In
her message, current PETA executive director Beng Santos-Cabangon said, “Why
tell the story of martial law? As artists, we in PETA remain steadfast in our
mission to use the arts to reflect peoples’ stories and examine our history, so
we can find meaning in chaos, make sense of our realities and have vision
amidst doubt and cynicism. Why the need to remember? Because it is in
remembering that we understand. With understanding, we care. And when we care,
we stand firm, we march and shout, ‘Never again!’”
She
further said, “This play is PETA’s humble contribution to the ongoing effort of
sharing and forging a dialog and understanding about our country’s martial law
history. It is also a call to action — to make our young people learn and
understand that the freedom they enjoy today was fought with the blood and
tears of their elders.”
In
this endeavor, PETA is supported by the National Historical Commission of the
Philippines, ensuring the accuracy of historical details, as well as advocacy
groups Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, Dakila and Active Vista.
Leni
Velasco, Active Vista’s executive director, explained, “By co-presenting A
Game of Trolls and initiating various creative endeavors as
artist-activists and cultural educators, we hope that the present generation
may be encouraged to seek the truth amidst the varying narratives circulated
that are meant to deceive and misinform our people; sow disunity in our
country; and mislead our nation towards the path to genuine change.”
On
the other hand, Dakila executive director Micheline Rama commented, “The most
effective antidote against historical revisionism, false heroes, fake news,
apathy and misinformation has always been education through the arts—real
compelling stories of the human struggles presented through creative forms—film,
music, visuals and theater.”
A
Game of Trolls,
written by Liza Magtoto and directed by PETA artistic director Maribel Legarda
with music by Vincent de Jesus, revolves around Hector (Myke Solomon), a young
man who works as an online troll defending and spreading fake news in support
of martial law, showing total indifference and ignorance about that era’s ugly
truths. He is also indifferent to his own mother, harboring a grudge because of
her past absences and ignorant of her past as an activist and a victim of
torture during martial law. Heck has a group of friends, members of a band led
by activist-leaning Cons (Gold Villar-Lim), who becomes Heck’s love
interest.
Heck
is visited by “ghosts” of real martial law victims including doctor Bobby de la
Paz, writer Emannuel Lacaba, student-activist Ed Jopson, Kalinga leader
Macli-ing Dulag, and nun Sister Mariani Dimaranan, all telling him their
stories during the martial law period. The stories are told seriously, as well
as in popular entertainment formats to attract the play’s main target, the
millennials. The play also incorporates rap and hip-hop, as well as digital
graphics projected on the backdrop to be more appealing for the younger
audience. The images of the play also include very recent images, such as
extrajudicial killings, the burying of the truth, and strongman tendencies,
drawing frightening parallels.
But
with careful research, A Game of Trolls remains factual,
resisting the tendency to sugar-coat the horrors perpetrated by the Marcos
regime, and the story serves as the emotional core, enabling the presentation
of a vital history lesson in an engaging manner as well as of a cautionary tale
that tells us that condonement and even tolerance of or silence on something as
evil as this will affect us all.
A
Game of Trolls is
onstage the whole month of September at the PETA Theater Center, No. 5 Eymard
Drive, New Manila, Quezon City. For tickets, contact TicketWorld at telephone
number (632) 891-9999, log on to Ticketworld.com.ph,
or visit www.petatheater.com/agameoftrolls.
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