The government website that contains historical records of the Philippine presidency, including those from the Martial Law era, was found to be down on Monday. Manuel Quezon III, the former undersectretary of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, alerted the public to the site becoming unaccessible via Twitter.
As of the time of writing, the website remains down.
While Quezon said that there are multiple reasons as to why the website cannot be accessed, the development comes after the apparent presidential election win of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the former president and dictator who declared martial law in the country from 1972-1986 and presided over a 21-year regime.
READ: So what was so bad about martial law?
The presumptive President-elect also said that he was interested in appointing his running mate, VP-elect Sara Duterte, as secretary of the Department of Education, raising concerns that their adminstration may whitewash of the atrocities that took place under Martial Law in history books. Those fears are based on the formidable social media machinery that propagated historical myths about Marcos Sr’s regime and helped secure Marcos Jr’s win.
Whatever the reason for the shutdown, not all is lost — Quezon managed to dig up some links to existing historical archives that can still be accessed via Archive.org.
2. Filipino version, Deklarasyon ng Batas Militar https://t.co/FBlFHhWjtg
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) May 16, 2022
3. The Fall of the Dictatorship https://t.co/HRpVF0SXQn
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) May 16, 2022
4. Infographic: The day Marcos declared Martial Law https://t.co/GbYSJB15iY
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) May 16, 2022
5. Si Ninoy Aquino https://t.co/5AD8GLffZ2
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) May 16, 2022
6. Edsa, Elsewhere: The 1986 People Power Revolution https://t.co/tSqebmkvQI
— Manuel L. Quezon III (@mlq3) May 16, 2022
UPDATE: The Presidential Museum and Library, the department in charge of managing the website, released a statement that read, “Contrary to reports that it has been deleted, the website malacañang.gov.ph is merely suspended following measures to update the content therein and improve its security features. Rest assured that the contents of the said website have not been compromised and will be made available to the public at the soonest possible time.”
