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RenxKyoko Iglesias  here, hello .

Check out my anime/manga site  at http://2megaworthitwordpresscomblog.wordpress.com/

On my previous post  here, I promised I’d  give my reason  for my weird post, “How To Boil An Egg“.  I did make it like it was a  mystery.  Sorry , but there’s nothing earth-shaking there, no clap of thunder.  It does have a rather long back story , a story  that my parents had experienced, up close and personal.

I will try to keep it short, so here goes….

There was this person named Ferdinand Marcos, who was elected President of the Philippines in 1968.  He  was , well, I don’t know what he was, but  he   was an honor law student  and topped the Bar exams  before he became a Congressman , then the President.  But he was  brazenly corrupt (  together with his wife, Imelda Marcos  of 10,ooo pairs of shoes  ) and knew he would not be reelected .  There were massive  protests all over the country……..  so what he did was first, he suspended the writ of habeas corpus , and using his personal army ( The Armed Forces of the Philippines )  ,   was able to detain his political enemies,   and in 1971 just  3 months  after  the suspension ( September ) , and  before  the presidential election  in November, he  proclaimed Martial Law.  Philippine democracy was replaced with dictatorship and authoritarianism. He detained  senators, congressmen , and known critics, one of whom was then Senator Benigno Aquino  who was detained for more than 7 years , then exiled to the US, ( supposedly due to medical reasons ….  and here in the US, he was given a teaching job at Harvard University ) .     Marcos dictatorship lasted from 1971 to 1986 (  15 years ! ! ) when he was toppled down thru the famous People Power Revolution in February 1986,  the culmination of people’s protests that began when Senator Benigno Aquino went back to the Philippines on August 21, 1983, and assassinated right there at the airport tarmac.

The picture above was  the  funeral procession of  Senator Benigno Aquino .  The outrage was massive .  But, here’s the most unbelievable  part of the story. The day after the funeral march,  there was NO NEWS  that came out about that historical event. No photos.  None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Soon after,  journalists, especially opinion  writers ,  wrote nothing  but    HOW TO BOIL AN EGG  .

That, my readers, is the back story.

Alright, this is all for now. Thanks for reading.

Addendum :

My parents were so outraged that they joined the early protest movement in 1983, right after the assassination.  It was a very dangerous thing to do then because Marcos was still in power .  Soldiers  would come knocking on doors in the night . The victims became  part of the Disappeared , the Desaparecidos . Filipinos  called it  getting ” SALVAGED “.  There were thousands of  these victims  during Marcos’ dictatorship and kleptocracy.   It came to a point when my siblings , who were then 4 and 5 years old,  had to live with friends and were moved from one house to another over 3 years ( not with my parents’ families because , of course, the government  knew who they were ).  My parents were willing to die for the country. Great story !