By: Ira Anastasia Acierto
Photo courtesy of IBON International.
Launched in early 2025, just before the midterm elections, the book entitled “Remembering, Resisting: Realities of People’s Struggles under the Second Marcos Regime” was conceived as a counterpoint to state claims that the country’s human rights situation has significantly improved under Marcos Jr.
IBON International gathered narratives from people’s organizations to “ground” these official claims in lived realities—from the countryside to the urban poor communities, from factories to schools. While the administration projects stability and reform, the essays insist that the shadow of dictatorship did not vanish with the fall of Marcos Sr.; it lingers in policies, institutions, and the daily fears of those who dare to dissent.?
The title itself, “Remembering, Resisting,” speaks to a double movement: memory as a refusal to sanitize history, and resistance as a refusal to accept present injustices as normal. Against historical distortion and the glamorization of the Marcos name, the contributors reclaim memory as a battleground, showing how the stories of the disappeared, the displaced, and the disempowered shape today’s struggles. In doing so, the book positions remembrance as an active, political practice rather than a quiet act of nostalgia.?
People’s Stories Under The Second Marcos
At the heart of the publication are the stories of sectors that bear the brunt of economic crisis and political repression: workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, women, youth, and communities in resistance. Labor advocates describe how policies favoring foreign capital and “flexible” work arrangements result in precarious jobs, poverty wages, and union-busting—contradicting government boasts of prosperity and investment-led growth.
One example highlighted in discussions around the book is the 2025 strike of workers at Nexperia Philippines, whose demands for decent work were met not with meaningful reform but with hostility and refusal by the administration to prioritize a legislated wage hike.?
Rural and indigenous communities, meanwhile, face land grabs, militarization, and development projects that displace them in the name of progress.
Their chapters trace a familiar pattern: promises of infrastructure and investment followed by the entry of corporations, the presence of security forces, and the red-tagging of community leaders who resist.
These stories link the current regime to a longer history of “development aggression” in the Philippines, where the language of modernization often masks dispossession.?
Rights Abuses Behind State Narratives
The book’s launch events drew together people’s organizations and rights advocates who challenged the administration’s “whole-of-government” counterinsurgency approach, which they see as deepening rights violations and shrinking civic space.
International observers, such as those involved in the 2024 International People’s Tribunal, have found both the Duterte and Marcos Jr. governments responsible for serious human rights abuses, reinforcing what grassroots organizations have long reported from the ground. These include political imprisonment, harassment of activists, and entrenched impunity for state forces accused of violations.?
Statistics shared by rights groups reflect the human cost behind the rhetoric of order and security: hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars, many of them elderly, sickly, or women, detained under laws and practices that activists describe as weaponized against dissent.
The book situates these abuses in a global context, showing how international institutions and tribunals have begun to call out the Philippine government even as it seeks higher standing in bodies like the UN Security Council. In this way, the narratives insist that accountability must be demanded both domestically and internationally.?
Crisis, Poverty, and Contested Progress
Beyond overt repression, “Remembering, Resisting” foregrounds another form of violence: the violence of hunger, joblessness, and deepening inequality.
Economic briefings and people’s data show that under Marcos Jr., poverty and food insecurity have worsened, with surveys indicating that millions of Filipino families experience themselves as poor and hungry despite official claims of growth. Hunger rates have more than doubled since the start of the administration, and progress on key development targets—from decent work to social protection—remains off-track.?
Contributors argue that this crisis is not accidental but rooted in a familiar neoliberal playbook: austerity in social services, reliance on foreign capital, and infrastructure programs designed for big business rather than communities.
Long-term underinvestment in agriculture and manufacturing has hollowed out the country’s productive base, making it harder to generate stable, decent jobs that could lift people out of poverty. In this light, the glossy narrative of an “improving economy” becomes part of the problem, obscuring the daily realities of those left behind.?
Remembering as Resistance
Ultimately, the book is less a closed volume than a call to action— a reminder that people’s struggles under the second Marcos regime continue to evolve, and that they are deeply connected to the unfinished business of the first.
By documenting campaigns, strikes, community organizing, and international solidarity efforts, the essays show how movements are reclaiming narrative power from a state that seeks to control both history and the present. For students, workers, farmers, and advocates, the publication offers not only documentation, but also a mirror, reflecting back the dignity and courage that persist amid fear and fatigue.?
“Remembering, Resisting” insists that memory must be sharpened into critique, and critique into collective action. In an era of disinformation, historical revisionism, and polished state messaging, the book becomes a tool for political education: a resource for classrooms, community discussions, and organizing spaces where people are asking what it means to fight for genuine democracy today.
By amplifying people’s stories, it affirms that the struggle against authoritarianism—old and new—will always be written not just in laws and speeches, but in the daily acts of resistance of the marginalized.
“Remembering, Resisting” is a vital reckoning with the present through the lens of collective memory. It reveals how the struggles of workers, farmers, indigenous peoples, and youth persist under the second Marcos regime despite the government’s polished narratives of progress and stability.
The book challenges readers to see beyond official claims and to listen to the lived realities of those fighting oppression, exploitation, and historical erasure. It calls for remembrance not as passive nostalgia but as a deliberate act of resistance and political education.
More than a record of grievances, this collection is a call to action, urging communities and activists to continue reclaiming spaces for dissent and solidarity amid shrinking democratic spaces. It highlights the interconnectedness of economic injustice, state violence, and historical revisionism, showing that the fight for human rights and social justice remains unfinished.
As disinformation and repression grow, the book reminds us that genuine change depends on collective struggle, critical awareness, and the courage to resist authoritarianism in all its forms. In doing so, “Remembering, Resisting” uplifts the resilient spirit of the marginalized and offers hope that another, more just future is still possible.