The Conjugal Dictatorship

The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
nationalism of the highest order, but what could not be erased was the
observation that the change was effected in the wake of the rejection by the
U.S. Congress in February, 1962, of an omnibus bill which would have granted
the Philippines additional war payments to the tune of $78 million. Included in
the proposed additional war damage payments was a personal claim made by
a certain Ferdinand E. Marcos for $8 million to compensate for food and.
war material he allegedly supplied the American guerillas in Mindanao during
the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. The U.S. War Damage
Commission had earlier rejected the Mindanao during the Japanese
Occupation of the Philippines. The U.S. War Damage Commission had earlier
rejected the same personal war damage claims of Marcos as “fake.” * 4
(*4. See Chapter on “Too Late the Hero.”
One of the fiery supporters of President Macapagal on his transfer of the
date of Philippine Independence was then Senator Ferdinand E. Marcos who
delivered an emotional oratory denouncing “America’s ingratitude” for the
Bataan sacrifices of Filipino soldiers, like him. In the course of his fiery speech,
Marcos even went through the motions, along with another senator (Eulogio
Balao) whose heroic exploits in the battles against the Japanese have never
been questioned by anyone, of returning to the United States embassy in
Manila all his 28 war decorations, most of which he had obtained 17 years after
his alleged heroic exploits in the war.* 5 (*5. Ibid.) Marcos’ act of “returning”
his war medals to the United States embassy prompted then Senate Majority
Leader Cipriano Primicias, Sr. to ask rhetorically: “How can. he return those
medals to the U.S. embassy when all but two of them are Philippine decorations
which he obtained only a month ago and 17 years after the war?” In any case,
when Marcos himself became President of his country in 1965, he upheld the
decision of Macapagal and to this day leads his nation in celebrating
Independence Day every 12th day of June.
Washington, D.C. is thus of special significance to the Filipinos. There was
even a time when Filipinos, especially the newspapermen, considered going to
Washington, D.C. a special pilgrimage in much the same spirit that a Filipino
Muslim looks forward to a visit to Mecca in Jeddha, a lifetime obligation.
Thus, Filipino newsmen found themselves in the 50s and early 60s making a
mad scramble for the much-coveted Fulbright and Smith-Mundt travel grants
offered through the State Department in order that they could acquire the status
symbol of having made the trip to Washington, D.C. Lately,however, the status
symbol has had some changes, with Filipino newsmen considering that the trips
to Moscow or Peking are the current “musts” for media men. The outstanding
symbol of a Filipino newsman’s achievement in Washington, D.C. is, of course,
Abelardo “Al” Valencia, the first Filipino correspondent of the Associated Press
before World War II, who is now doing some press and public relations work
for the Philippine embassy in Washington, D.C.
I imagine that the patriotic feeling that Washington, D.C. awakens in me
when I am within her fold works similarly for most other Filipinos who are awed
by the relevance of the U.S. capital to their own lives as citizens of the
Philippines. It was in Washington, D.C. where Proculo Rodriguez, Jr., the man
largely responsible in preventing the Commission on Elections from being used
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