Hukayin: The constitutionality of introducing a law penalizing the denial of the Marcos regime’s atrocities

• Main Author: Ramos, Dan Christian E.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Constitutional law > Philippines; Freedom of speech > Philippines; Constitutional Law
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/7199
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study is inspired by the uproar brought about by the move of President Duterte to allow former President Marcos to be given a hero’s burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Many associated the move with acts of historical revisionism, as it essentially sanitized the image of the deposed dictator. It thus begs the question: can a law penalizing historical revisionism pass constitutional muster in the Philippines?The German Criminal Code provisions penalizing Holocaust denial is treated by this study as a model for a hypothetical counterpart law in the Philippines. The many parallels between the Holocaust and the Marcos Regime allows for the German law to be adapted to the Philippine setting. The proposed law’s constitutionality in the Philippine legal system is validated through the application of various tests established by landmark cases on the freedom of speech and expression.It is ultimately concluded that such a law would be upheld as valid on the following grounds: speech which denied, downplayed, or justified the atrocities committed under the Marcos regime fell within the scope of unprotected speech; the State had compelling interest in proscribing such speech; and such speech will bring about about grave and imminent dangers, to the satisfaction of the clear and present danger test.