The Conjugal Dictatorship

The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
his imposition of martial law in the Philippines in 1972. The other apparent
objective of Marcos in offering me a handsome bribe was to silence the
opposition set up by overseas Filipinos to the despotic military rule that has
engulfed the Philippines. Marcos’ objectives are quite understandable
considering the stakes involved, his crime in trying to buy me out of the House
committee hearing not having been his first anyway against democracy.
The most merciful thing that might be said about the bribe attempt is that
Marcos simply wanted to stop me from giving the damaging testimony that I
gave to the Fraser committee. Marcos has never failed before; he figured
neither the risk that I just might reject his bribe nor the dire consequences that
would ensue from his failure to make me shy away from the committee hearing.
After all, Marcos and other past Philippine Presidents have always had their
way with Mother America; U.S. aid in terms of millions of dollars squeezed out
of the hard-working American taxpayers regularly come almost as a matter of
course.
Thus, when Marcos proclaimed martial law in the Philippines, he took it for
granted that his military dictatorship, nicknamed the New Society, could
undertake, as had his pre-martial law administration as well as others before
him, activities that earn Washington’s condemnation, if committed by
governments other than that of America’s former ward in Asia.
It seems that Marcos hasn’t realized that the rules of the game have already
been changed. He himself changed the rules by which he should be handled in
the United States when he proclaimed martial law in the Philippines; Marcos
discarded the institution of democratic fair play and humane conduct by which
the delicate art of government should be pursued. His very move was one of
the underlying reasons for the decision of the United States Congress to
conduct an inquiry into the U.S. foreign assistance program, including the dole
out of millions of dollars to the Philippines; the U.S. Congress wanted to determine
the wisdom of pumping millions of American taxpayer money into
authoritarian regimes that go against the very objective of foreign assistance,
which is the expansion of the frontiers of freedom and democracy all over the
world.
It was Marcos’ own conduct of an oppressive and rapacious authoritarian
government that made me renounce a rule of doggish, loyal service to him. He
had the gall nevertheless to assume that I was still his man whom he could
keep away from a congressional witness stand with a bribe offer. Now, other
rules are changing for Marcos. The United States government has decided to
investigate the bribe.
The attempt to silence me, and the later attempt to make me recant my
congressional testimony, were not the first of acts of similar nature committed
by the martial government of Marcos by way of exportation of martial law to the
United States. The exportation of Marcos’ martial law has an altogether
different objective from the exportation made by Fidel Castro of his Cuban
revolution. Marcos’ main desire is to silence criticisms and opposition abroad
by both Filipinos and friends of the Filipino people in order to minimize possible
alarm that might be raised by foreign governments, particularly the United
States, over the repression and plunder that the military regime has launched
in the Philippines.
The Manila government has prepared a “blacklist” of Filipinos residing in
Primitivo Mijares Page 46