New edition of book detailing Marcos and Imelda's 'conjugal dictatorship' set for release

A new edition of a book that detailed the early days of the Marcos regime is set for release.

"The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos," which was originally published in 1975 by former Marcos propaganda man Primitivo Mijares, will be launched at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City on February 21.

In a press statement, Mijares' grandson Joseph Christopher Mijares-Gurango said the burial of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in November prompted the family to launch the new edition of the book, which was considered as a true insider, behind-the-scenes look at the personalities and circumstances involved in the Marcos dictatorship. 

“I was disgusted by how one of the darkest chapters in our country’s history — and those who died fighting the dictatorship — could be whitewashed so shamelessly,” Gurango said.

Mijares served as Marcos' chief propagandist before his defection in 1975, a year before the publishing of his book, and went on exile in the United States. 

He disappeared shortly after the publication of the book and was declared legally dead years later. 

Personalities who opposed the Marcos dictatorship will attend the launch, including Miriam Lacaba, daughter of the late poet and activist Emmanuel Lacaba, and former National Historical Commission of the Philippines chair Maria Serena Diokno, who resigned over the Marcos burial. 

Diokno is also the daughter of the late senator and prominent Marcos critic Jose Diokno. Her nephew, writer and filmmaker Pepe, will also speak at the event. 

“We want to show everyone that you didn’t have to be alive then for you to fight against historical revisionism. Some of the people my grandfather wrote about in his book are survived by their children and grandchildren. And we will ensure that their memory lives on,” Gurango said. —Joseph Tristan Roxas/JST, GMA News