Conjugal dictatorship

Last updated

The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Author Primitivo M. Mijares
CountryPhilippines
LanguageEnglish
Genre Documentary
Set in Manila, Philippines
Publisher Ateneo de Manila University Press, University of Michigan
Publication date
27 April 1976 (1976-04-27)
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages430

The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos by Primitivo Mijares is a book that was written in 1976 within a decade after the proclamation of martial law. [1]

Contents

The term "conjugal dictatorship" is the mainstream term which is used to denote the rule of Philippine president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, and it is also used to describe a type of family dictatorship. It derived from the book. [2] [3]

Usage of the term

Mijares, the author who coined the phrase, disappeared after the publication of his book and his son Boyet Mijares was later found dead after being tortured brutally [4] [5] and dropped from a helicopter. [6] Police investigations led by Panfilo Lacson claimed that Mijares' son was a victim of hazing by University of the Philippines Tau Gamma fraternity and the accused fraternity members were sentenced to death. Journalist Raissa Robles contests that the son, Luis Manuel “Boyet” Mijares, was not even about to enter college, as he still had a year of high school to finish and that the fate of the accused fraternity members seems suspicious: two escaped from prison and the third died of a heart attack in detention. [6] [7]

The phrase alludes to the power held by both halves of the couple, [8] [9] especially Imelda, who began to wield much more influence than that of the typical First Lady. [10] Imelda was able to hold many more positions in government than any other First Lady of the Philippines before her. These appointments allowed her to build structures in and around the capital of Manila and act as a de facto diplomat who traveled the world and met state leaders. [11] [12]

Supporters, loyalists and even propagandists of the Marcos regime criticize the use of the term because they believe that the era of the Marcos' and Martial Law was the "golden age" of the Philippines. [13] The children of the Marcos couple: Imee, Bongbong, and Irene, reject the use of the term to describe their parents which they believe is an insult to their legacy. [14] [15] Meanwhile, opponents of the Marcos dictatorship use the word to highlight the excesses of the couple and the greed and plundering that occurred during their 20-year rule. [16] Critics, such as the relatives of the desaparecidos , also use the term to describe human rights abuses by the regime during their rule together. [17] [18]

Creation of The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at Clark Air Base on March 14, 1979 Marcos Clark Air Base cropped.jpg
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos at Clark Air Base on March 14, 1979

A journalist who had become a propagandist and confidant for Ferdinand Marcos, Primitivo “Tibo” Mijares had served under Marcos since 1963 and claimed to have been privy to government's high-level doings. [7] As Chairman of the National Press Club, Mijares ran the Media Advisory Council, a state agency established to censor the press in 1973. Upon the declaration of martial law in September 1972, and with the power to choose which media outlet would be re-opened, the Mijares-led Media Advisory Council was accused of abusing its role and was criticized as a "money-raising tool," leading one of its members, Emil Jurado, to resign. [19] Mijares himself, after failing to account for NPC funds, ran away to the US, and joined Manglapus' Movement for a Free Philippines and wrote the book. [20] Mijares said that he was offered a bribe amounting to US$100,000 to be dissuaded to testify about the human rights situation in the Philippines, and said that he refused the bribe. However, whether there was a bribe by Marcos' associates or whether Mijares himself extorted money from Marcos, and whether Mijares actually received money from Marcos remains unclear. Steve Psinakis, an anti-Marcos critic married into the Lopez family that owns ABS-CBN, [21] wrote in his memoir A Country Not Even His Own” (2008): “The investigation (referring to the U.S. Justice Department investigation) revealed that after his February 1975 defection, Mijares did, in fact extort money from Marcos by feeding him imaginary information for which Marcos was ignorant enough to pay considerable sums. While Mijares was still receiving money from Marcos, he was at the same time lambasting Marcos in the U.S. press, causing the Marcos regime irreparable damage. It is no wonder the only natural conclusion is that Marcos had his vengeance and did Mijares in.” [22]

A declassified U.S. Department of State cable dated February 24, 1975 further casts doubt on Mijares credibility, noting that "Mijares' moved not surprising to Manila Community which recognizes him as complete opportunist who recently was feeling hot breath of Martial Law Regime for certain recent extra-curricular activities. Allegedly, Mijares gambled away 50,000 dollars of GOP funds during a 1974 Las Vegas visit, misappropriated for personal use 7,000 dollars of the First Lady's personal funds and attempted to rape a well connected Philippine foreign service secretary while in New York for the trade center opening," and that "final push to action may in fact have been provided by Philippine opposition group in US and financial inducements of Lopez family members. Local Lopezes got word of San Francisco story February 21 and quickly began telephoning glad news around town." [23]

Attempts to refute some of the book's claims have arisen after more than a decade since its publication. For example, the book insinuated that Marcos plotted the Plaza Miranda bombing to wipe out the entire Liberal Party leadership and that the weapon landing from China for the communists along the coast of Isabela was 'staged'. In 1989, four "former ranking Party officials" admitted to the plot to bomb Plaza Miranda, [24] and former NPA Victor Corpus admitted that their plot was foiled when the weapons that they were about to receive from communist China was intercepted by the military. [25] [26] [27] However, no official statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines exists taking credit for the Plaza Miranda bombing.

Online release and revised edition reprint

In May 2016, the heirs of Primitivo Mijares released The Conjugal Dictatorship as a free e-book download from the Ateneo de Manila Rizal Library. [28]

In February 2017, a revised and annotated reprint of the book was released by Mijares' grandson Joseph Christopher "JC" Mijares Gurango. [29] The Mijares family admitted that what happened to Primitivo and his youngest son Boyet was so traumatic that they did not want to talk about it, but decided to break their silence with the resurgence of Marcos in the political scene, culminated by the burial of Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani and near victory of the dictator's namesake and son Ferdinand Jr. in the 2016 national elections. The revised edition was aimed for the "new generation of readers", referring to the millennials, as well as new annotations and "verification of sources". [30]

Related Research Articles

Ferdinand Marcos President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial law from 1972 until 1981 and kept most of his martial law powers until he was deposed in 1986, branding his rule as "constitutional authoritarianism" under his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. One of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century, Marcos' rule was infamous for its corruption, extravagance, and brutality.

Imelda Marcos Philippine former First Lady (born 1929)

Imelda Romualdez Marcos is a Filipina politician and convicted criminal who was First Lady of the Philippines for 20 years, during which she and her husband Ferdinand Marcos stole billions of pesos from the Filipino people, amassing a personal fortune estimated to have been worth US$5 billion to US$10 billion by the time they were deposed in 1986. By 2018, about $3.6 billion of this had been recovered by the Philippine government, either through compromise deals or sequestration cases.

Bongbong Marcos President-elect of the Philippines (born 1957)

Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., commonly referred to as Bongbong Marcos and by the initials BBM, is a Filipino politician who is the president-elect of the Philippines. He previously served as a senator from 2010 to 2016. He is the second child and only son of former president, dictator, and kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and former first lady and convicted criminal Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

Imee Marcos Filipina politician (born 1955)

Maria Imelda Josefa Remedios "Imee" Romualdez Marcos is a Filipina politician serving as a Senator since 2019. She is the daughter of the late president, dictator and kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos and former first lady and convicted criminal Imelda Marcos. She previously served as governor of Ilocos Norte from 2010 to 2019 and as representative of Ilocos Norte's 2nd district from 1998 to 2007.

Querube Makalintal

Querube Cortinas Makalintal was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1973 to 1975 and Speaker of the Interim Batasang Pambansa from 1978 to 1984.

Ratification Cases

The Ratification Cases, officially titled as Javellana v. Executive Secretary, was a 1973 Supreme Court of the Philippines case that allowed the 1973 Philippine Constitution to come into full force, which led to dictator President Ferdinand Marcos staying in power and ruling by decree until he was ousted by the People Power Revolution in 1986. The decision became the cornerstone of subsequent decisions whenever the validity of the 1973 Constitution was questioned.

Philippine habeas corpus cases are cases decided by the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which invoke the writ of habeas corpus.

Martial law in the Philippines Authorized military government in the Philippines

Martial law in the Philippines refers to the various historical instances in which the Philippine head of state placed all or part of the country under military control - most prominently during the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, but also during the Philippines’ colonial period, during the second world war, and more recently on the island of Mindanao during the administrations of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte. The alternative term "Martial Law Era" as applied to the Philippines is typically used to describe the Marcos martial law period specifically.

It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that the Philippines saw a surge in student activism. This could be chalked up to the onset of the Marcos administration and its declaration of Martial Law, which bore witness to tens of thousands of human rights violations, among many others. There are, however, several factors and events in Philippine history that contributed to the increase in student activism during this period. In fact, economic decline, increase in unemployment rates, the growth of intra-elite conflicts, and internal dissension and disruption all factored into the context of student activism in the Philippines. It was around this time that businesses in Manila tried to find opportunities to withdraw when the city started to be deemed unsafe. Five Communist oriented guerrillas in the countryside had also regained some of the momentum similar to the Huks had before they were contained by Magsaysay in the 1950s. The coming of a revolution was considered a possibility waiting to happen at one point as riots and demonstrations erupted, causing colleges to be closed down. All of these culminated in an effort to storm the Malacañang.

<i>Batas Militar</i> (1997 film) 1997 Philippine documentary film

Batas Militar is a 1997 Filipino television documentary film about martial law under Ferdinand Marcos. The film was directed by Jon Red and Jeannette Ifurung, with the former focusing on dramatizations. It is the most expensive documentary film produced in the Philippines.

Military career of Ferdinand Marcos

The Military career of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos during World War II has been the subject of debate and controversy, both in the Philippines and in international military circles. Marcos, who had received ROTC training in the University of the Philippines, was activated for service in the US Armed Forces in the Philippines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as a 3rd lieutenant during the mobilization in the summer and fall of 1941, continuing until April 1942, after which he was taken prisoner. According to Marcos' account, he was released from prison by the Japanese on August 4, 1942, and US military records show that he rejoined USAFIP forces in December 1944. Marcos' military service then formally ended with his discharge as a major in the 14th Infantry, US Armed Forces in the Philippines Northern Luzon, in May 1945.

Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos 1972–1981 period in the Philippines

At 7:17 pm on September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos announced on television that he had placed the entirety of the Philippines under martial law. This marked the beginning of a 14-year period of one-man rule that would effectively last until Marcos was exiled from the country on February 25, 1986. Even though the formal document proclaiming martial law – Proclamation No. 1081, which was dated September 21, 1972 – was formally lifted on January 17, 1981, Marcos retained essentially all of his powers as dictator until he was ousted.

The dictatorship of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the 1970s and 1980s is historically remembered for its record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities, historians believe that the Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 77 'disappeared', and 70,000 incarcerations.

Marcos family Filipino political family

The Marcos family is a political family in the Philippines. They have established themselves in the country's politics, having established a political dynasty that traces its beginnings to the 1925 election of Mariano Marcos to the Philippine House of Representatives as congressman for the second district of Ilocos Norte; reached its peak during the 21-year rule of Ferdinand Marcos as president of the Philippines that included his 14-year dictatorship beginning with the declaration of Martial Law throughout the country; and continues today with the political careers of Imelda Marcos, Imee Marcos, and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Second term of the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Philippine political event

Ferdinand Marcos' second term as President of the Philippines began on December 30, 1969, as a result of his winning the 1969 Philippine presidential election nearly two months earlier on November 11, 1969. Marcos was the first and last president of the Third Philippine Republic to win a second full term. The end of Marcos' second term was supposed to be in December 1973, which would also have been the end of his presidency because the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines allowed him to have only two four-year terms. However, Marcos issued Proclamation 1081 in September 1972, placing the entirety of the Philippines under Martial Law and effectively extending his term indefinitely. He would only be removed from the presidency in 1986, as a result of the People Power Revolution.

Ferdinand Marcoss cult of personality Overview of the cult of personality of Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Marcos developed a cult of personality as a way of remaining President of the Philippines for 21 years, in a way that political scientists have compared to other authoritarian and totalitarian leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, but also to more contemporary dictators such as Sukarno and Suharto in Indonesia, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the Kim dynasty of North Korea.

The August 24, 1974 military raid on the Sacred Heart Novitiate in the Novaliches district of Quezon City in the Philippines is considered an important turning point in the Philippine Catholic church's resistance to the Marcos dictatorship.

Historical distortion regarding Ferdinand Marcos Accusations of historical negationism regarding Ferdinand Marcos

Historical distortion regarding Ferdinand Marcos is a phenomenon in the politics of the Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos was the country's president between 1965 and 1986. Distortion, falsification, or whitewashing of the historical record regarding this period, sometimes referred to using the phrases "historical denialism", "historical negationism", or "historical revisionism" as an eupheminism for negationism, is an academically documented phenomenon linked to the return of Marcos' immediate family and political allies to government positions, as well as the hero's burial of Marcos himself in 2016. It continues Marcos' own efforts to create a cult of personality for himself, which in itself involved various forms of historical distortion.

Primitivo Mijares Filipino journalist and whistleblower

Primitivo "Tibo" Medrana Mijares was a Filipino journalist, author, war hero, and former press censor and propagandist. He was a reporter of the Philippines Daily Express, a newspaper in circulation during the regime of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

Journalism during the Marcos dictatorship

Journalism during the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines—a fourteen year period between the declaration of Martial Law in 1972 until the People Power revolution in February 1986—was heavily restricted by Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in order to suppress political opposition and prevent criticism of his administration.

References

  1. ↑ Mijares, Primitivo. The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, Union Square Publishing, Manila, 1976. ISBN   1-141-12147-6.
  2. ↑ Pineda, DLS (22 February 2014). "So you think you love Marcos?". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Diaz, Ramona. Imelda . Ramona Diaz-Independent Television Service, 2003.
  4. ↑ Zamora, Fe (19 February 2017). "Family secret: How Primitivo Mijares disappeared". Philippine Daily Inquirer .
  5. ↑ Cepeda, Cody (16 September 2016). "44 years too long: The martial-law victims, 'desaparecidos' and the families left behind". BusinessMirror .
  6. 1 2 Robles, Raissa (2016). Marcos Martial Law: Never Again. Quezon City: Filipinos for a Better Philippines, Inc. ISBN   978-621-95443-1-3.
  7. 1 2 "My book on Marcos Martial Law will be formally launched March 31 in Ateneo, QC". www.raissarobles.com. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  8. ↑ "An insider's guide to Manila: where brutalism meets bamboo", The Guardian . March 14, 2016.
  9. ↑ Shoes, jewels, and Monets: recovering the ill-gotten wealth of Imelda Marcos Archived 2017-05-02 at the Wayback Machine . Foreign Policy . January 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ Byrne, David, Fatboy Slim. Here Lies Love , Todomundo/Nonesuch. April 6, 2010.
  11. ↑ "The Steel Butterfly Still Soars". The New York Times . October 6, 2012.
  12. ↑ "David Byrne Meets Imelda". Time . February 4, 2007.
  13. ↑ "Filipinos in U.S. laud the late Sen. Jovito Salonga", Philippine Daily Inquirer . March 15, 2016.
  14. ↑ "The luck of Bongbong Marcos", Philippine Daily Inquirer. October 15, 2015.
  15. ↑ "The Marcos years: 'Golden age' of PH fashion", Philippine Daily Inquirer. September 27, 2015.
  16. ↑ "No political wound is deep enough to hurt forever... unless you are Aquino", The Manila Times . March 5, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Waiting for the other shoe(s) to drop", Philippine Daily Inquirer. March 29, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Would you invite Imelda Marcos to your school?", Philippine Daily Inquirer. July 14, 2014.
  19. ↑ The Manila Standard. "'The Press Under Martial Law'". Manila Standard.
  20. ↑ "'The Press Under Martial Law'". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  21. ↑ News, ABS-CBN (15 March 2016). "'Freedom fighter' Steve Psinakis passes away". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  22. ↑ Psinakis, Steve (2008). A Country Not Even His Own. Anvil Publishing.
  23. ↑ "Total Toady Turns Again: Primitivo Mijares Defects". WikiLeaks. 24 February 1975.
  24. ↑ "EX-COMMUNISTS PARTY BEHIND MANILA BOMBING". The Washington Post. 4 August 1989.
  25. ↑ "Ex-communist leader gets sentimental as divers find sunken ship". Gulf News.
  26. ↑ I-Witness, GMA 7 (18 November 2013). "MV Karagatan, The Ship of the Chinese Communist". YouTube.
  27. ↑ "Untold story of Karagatan in I-Witness". philstar.com. Retrieved 25 September 2019.
  28. ↑ "Controversial book on martial law now available for free". The Philippine Star. 20 May 2016.
  29. ↑ "FM propagandist's grandson fights 'lies'". The Philippine Star. 20 February 2017.
  30. ↑ Mijares, Primitivo (2017). "Preface". The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Bughaw/Ateneo Press. ISBN   978-971-550-781-3.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.