An excerpt from CHAPTER 1 of “Marcos Martial Law: Never Again” book
By Raïssa Robles
NOTE: In the light of the historical revisionism now going on about Ferdinand Marcos, I have decided, with the publisher’s permission, to share this excerpt online in such a way that you yourself can also pass it on to your friends and relatives anywhere.
President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, 55 years old in 1972, was a thin-lipped, dark-skinned wiry man who exuded a dangerous charm. He could speak in a stentorian voice, was a consummate wheeler-dealer and had eyes that never smiled even when the man was cracking a joke. He had a photographic memory and plotted political moves like a consummate chess player. Mijares claimed that when the President was a senior law student at the University of the Philippines he had written a thesis on the need for a “strong man” rule which he called “constitutional authoritarianism”. There was no doubt he saw himself as that man. “Marcos really aspired that early and intended to employ cunning and deceit to be his country’s dictator one day,” said Mijares.
Two infamous murders marked Ferdinand Marcos’ life. The first helped launch his political career, the second, 48 years later, started the tailspin that sent his regime crashing to the ground. In both instances the victim was an enemy who was shot in the back. On the night of September 20, 1935,* Julio Nalundasan, 41, a newly-elected Assemblyman from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, was killed by a single shot fired from long range while he was brushing his teeth. The suspected trigger man was the son of Nalundasan’s political opponent — 18-year-old Ferdinand Marcos, a law student at the University of the Philippines and a member of the University’s rifle team.
Investigation showed the rifle assigned to him was on the gun rack at the University of the Philippines, but another weapon was missing. In addition, Nalundasan had been killed by a “a single Western Lubaloy .22 long bullet that entered his back and penetrated his heart,” according to Hartzell Spence, Marcos’ official biographer. Spence noted that Marcos at that time was the national rifle champion and the .22 calibre rifles used in competitions were loaded with Western Lubaloy bullets. Three years after the killing, the young suspect Marcos was arrested. Allowed to graduate, he took the Bar Examination and placed first in 1939 — the year he was convicted and sentenced to 17 years imprisonment for murder.30 He didn’t stay long in jail: in 1940, the Supreme Court overturned the judgment and set him free. Ever after, the dictator, his propagandists and sycophants loved boasting that it was his legal prowess that got his conviction reversed (he wrote his own appeal). But that was only part of the story. The real reason why Marcos walked was a bizarre one: a Supreme Court justice had developed a soft spot for the killer.
You can read the rest online or download it for free and share it with your friends and relatives by clicking on this link.
duquemarino says
Sa pagpapakita ni DU30 ng mga larawan ng carnage ng america sa mga moro noong 1900s, may dahilan na rin upang ipamukha sa mga marcos ang mga pagpatay na ginawa sa panahon ng diktador at wag na ipagpilitan mailibing sa LNB.
Speaking of human rights abuses. Circa 1900s and circa Marcos martial law.
vander says
tama.
sa dami ng hugot, hayan, sa mukha niya bumabalandra ang mga katotohanan.
yun nga lang, iba ang tinitingnan sa tinititigan.
haiiiissssstttt.
gising 16m.
George says
I don’t know if our country is in the right direction anymore.
http://bandera.inquirer.net/131328/duterte-pinapaalis-na-ang-us-forces-sa-mindanao
Mel says
Its ‘His Way or the Highway’.
moonie says
highway to hell.
Mel says
kalakala says
nandoon ba talaga si putin during the said summit? mayroong pictures ba to support his claim about his one-on-one kay putin? ha ha ha
kaya pala mayroong military drill ang mga russians at chinese sa west phil. sea
Mel says
Sa G20 China, Yes.
Sa Laos, I saw Medvedev. BUT NO PUTIN.
Sira ulo si DU30 (may sakit, bipolar). May tama sa ulo. Katabi na niya sa kainan, hindi pa niya kilala!
Mel says
Ooops. Sorry Raïssa
BUT NO PUTIN photos, even at dinner gala with du30.
Sira ulo siDU30 (may sakit, bipolar).May tama sa ulo.moonie says
yan din ang alam ko, putin was not at asean, but was represented by 2nd in command, president medmedev of russia. I think, digong cannot tell the difference betweem medmedv and putin. put – ng ina, kasi. I bet, digong also lied about mary jane veloso, he was the one that gave the go ahead pero si widodo ang pinasama.
leona says
He thought he was seated beside Putin but he had serious doubts, so he did not talk to that ‘Putin’ baka hindi siya si Putin nga!
Putin’ itay!
ha ha ha
vander says
hindi namukhaan, putin ina.kala ko ikaw na.
iba pala.
leona says
Keep the light burning Ma’m Raissa. It is wonderful to read and share it here.
Is there a plan to lighten the Collectors Book? 2.1 kilos is always heavy wherever it is placed, on the lap or with the hands. Maybe make it Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Always KUDOS to your works!
:-)
raissa says
The softbound edition is only 600 grams.
leona says
Gaining something from this EXCERPT about FM, fate is what one makes for one’s self. In the end, when life was doing bad, karma is a natural pay-back time.
Bad and too bad an ending indeed. But so many never learn from it. Maybe it is because of a lost pride for ambition in living life.
Bad memories becomes part of the history.
What for was it all about. . .no honor was left for one’s life.
yvonne says
Subscribing.
moonie says
egad, makoy is not so unique there, 1st placer sa bar exam nuong 1939. there is always 1st placer tuwing may bar exam, 77 in all since then. it was not that makoy got the highest score of all the 77 – 1st placers.
the unique bit is that makoy got kicked out of the country, sinipa! after 21yrs of reigning. and now his spouse wants to pollute libingan by having him buried there. a traitor among the heroes.
I pray supreme court will put indefinite tro to his burial.
vander says
i pray the people put an end to this issue.
reagan took away our first chance to put the dictator to his proper niche.
Mel says
Are you saying that the late US President R Reagan violated the Filipinos’ Human Rights to exact extra-judicial justice when they took the fleeing Dictator Ferdinand Marcos to Hawaii?
netty says
Mel , for you, for me and all the human race,, read on and we’ll all know the showbiz that bind
between Reagan and Marcos.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/19/magazine/reagan-and-the-philippines-setting-marcos-adrift.html?pagewanted=all
“Marcos constantly – sometimes desperately – sought American approval. And for years, though he abused human rights and, with his wife, Imelda, plundered the country of billions of dollars, the United States coddled him for the sake of its Philippine bases. As Franklin D. Roosevelt had said, justifying his support of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, ”He may be an S.O.B., but he’s our S.O.B.”
Ronald Reagan, by contrast, genuinely cherished the Marcoses. In 1969, Governor and Mrs. Reagan visited Manila, where Imelda’s opulent parties dazzled them. From then on, Reagan, impressed by Marcos’s exaggerated stories of his exploits as an anti-Japanese guerrilla, counted him among the world’s ”freedom fighters” in the struggle against Communism. In Reagan’s eyes, as one of his aides mused later, Marcos was ”a hero on a bubble-gum card he had collected as a kid.”
Look at that, the flavor of the month word: SOB ( SERENDIPITY OF BITCHES)
Mel says
FYI, sarcastic tone ang kumento ko kay @vander, i was toying with him.
It was also reported then, FM donated USD 10 million dollars to Reagan’s presidential campaign. The exchange then was, from memory, 1 = 15 US to PH.
Mel says
When FMarcos was kept in Hawaii, he also planned to return to the Phils by force with violent insurrection against his Filipino ‘enemies’. Phone call Intercepts (released by the CIA) of FM scouting & ordering military grade weapons from international arms dealers (e.g. A Kashoggi) using his ill-gotten wealth and gold certificates as payments. Those were the days, post Marcos.