New edition of The Conjugal Dictatorship set to be launched

The insider account of the Martial Law regime revised and annotated for a new audience

AN ACCOUNT of the Martial Law regime written by Marcos’s chief propagandist, The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos is considered one of the most authoritative accounts of the early days of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos’s rule. Primitivo Mijares paid dearly after its publication in 1975; he went into exile in the United States for fear of reprisals from the Marcoses, before disappearing shortly afterwards.

In anticipation of the 31st anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution, the Mijares heirs, the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani, and the Ateneo de Manila University Press will release a new edition of the book, with the launch scheduled for Feb. 21, 4 p.m., at the Yuchengco Auditorium, Bantayog ng Mga Bayani, Bantayog Road, Diliman, Quezon City.

Primitivo Mijares was the former chief propagandist of the Marcos dictatorship. The book he wrote offers a behind-the-scenes look at the personalities and circumstances involved in the creation of one of the most corrupt dictatorships in modern history. Unlike other books about the era, this was written by a true insider who took no steps to sugarcoat the details, even those which resulted in his self-incrimination.

After writing the book, Mijares went into self-exile to the United States where he testified against Marcos in a United States House committee hearing.

A year after the publication of the book, Mijares attempted to return to the Philippines and was never heard from again. He was declared legally dead years later.

He is survived by his wife, children, and grandchildren. His youngest son, Luis Manuel “Boyet” Mijares, was abducted, tortured, and later found dead in 1977, believed to be as a result of the publication of The Conjugal Dictatorship. He was 16 years old.

The book Mijares wrote has undergone two printings, in 1976 and in 1986, both published by Union Square Publishers. The book has since been out of print.

The new edition features annotations with updated information, a new foreword by human rights lawyer and former Senator Rene Saguisag, and a preface by Joseph Christopher “JC” Mijares-Gurango, grandson of Primitivo Mijares. The surreptitious burial of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani on November 2016 prompted him to have his grandfather’s book republished.

“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,” he said.

The launch will feature several guest speakers representing the next-generation kin of those who opposed the Marcos dictatorship. These include Miriam Lacaba, daughter of the late poet and activist Emmanuel “Emman” Lacaba; Jo-Ed Tirol, a History professor at the Ateneo de Manila University who developed a curriculum for Martial Law history that can be cascaded to schools; Maria Serena Diokno, former chair of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and daughter of the late senator and prominent Marcos critic Jose Diokno, and her nephew, writer and filmmaker Pepe Diokno.

“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.”

The new 812-page edition of The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos will retail at P650 for paperback and P1,000 for hardcover, and will be available soon in leading physical and online bookstores.