Did Ferdinand Marcos Really Order a Media Blackout When He Declared Martial Law?

Is this gossip? Is the media blackout ordered by Ferdinand Marcos after declaring martial law something that never happened?  

Editor and Publisher 1972-09-30: Vol 105 Iss 40

President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who has in the past defended the ideals of a free press, virtually suspended operation of the Philippines news media under martial law last weekend. 

President Marcos, who in 1957 success-fully defended a newspaper reporter arrested by President Carlos P. Garcia for refusing to divulge the source of a news story and who later co-sponsored a bill to protect news sources except in cases of sedition or treason, ordered at least nine prominent Manila newsmen under arrest and shut down all but two of the 15 newspapers.

The Philippine president also issued a set of tight news reporting guidelines that must be followed or else violators will face arrest. 

Those newsmen detained include Joaquin P. Roces, publisher of the Manila Times, an independent English language daily with a morning circulation of 186,- 147, and Maxime Soliven, a columnist for the Times, who has been one of the President's principal critics; Rosalinda Galang, a Times reporter; Luis Mauricie, editor of Graphic, an English-language weekly magazine; and Teodore Locsin Sr., editor of Philippines Free Press.

Also taken into custody was Veronica Yuyitung, wife of Rizal Yuyitung, editor of the Chinese Commercial News, who was deported last year to Taiwan. 

Arrests were continuing and a new list released on Tuesday showed that Amando Doronilla, editor of the Manila Chronicle, and one of the paper's columnists, Ernesto Granada had been detained in the sweep against persons said to be subversives by the government's information secretary Francisco Tatad. 

On Tuesday (September 26), the government said it was allowing the Philippines Herald, an English-language na-tional daily, to resume publication. Up to that point, Marcos has permitted the continued operation of the Philippines Daily Express; one television network station; the Government-owned Voice of the Philippines radio station; and the Far East Broadcasting Company, a Philippine-owned radio station serving both domestic and overseas listeners. 

Publication of the remaining seven English-language and three vernacular dailies remain suspended. 

In an interview with newsmen, Marcos charged that the press and radio have been infiltrated by Communist propagandists and have been guilty of distortions, tendentious reporting, speculation and criticism that have damaged society and weakened resistance to Communism. 

Under the regulations, news media are ordered "to print and broadcast accurate, objective, straight news reports of positive national value consistent with the efforts of the government to meet the dangers and threat that occasioned the proclamation of martial law and the efforts to achieve a new society as set forth by the president." 

Coming under the ban are materials that "tend to incite or otherwise inflame people or individuals against the government" and items that "downgrade or jeopardize" the military of law authorities or glorify or sensationalize crime.

The guidelines also state: "Informative foreign news items may be printed or broadcast by the local media but in no case must any foreign news be printed or broadcast which puts it in the same cate-gory as any of the prohibited materials ennumerated above. Similarly, no news material or opinions emanating from abroad may be disseminated by any wire agency through any Philippines recipient which is of the same type as any of the prohibited materials enumerated above 

"The same rules apply to foreign correspondents whether based in the Philippines or not. No foreign dispatch will be filed from the Philippines which impugns, discredits, questions or criticizes any positive effort of the government, the government itself or any of its duly constituted authorities. Nor will any dispatch be filed which speaks unfairly or inaccurately of the Philippines or Filipinos ..." 

The regulations also censor all photographs.

The guidelines state that photographers can only take pictures of "normal city life and of interviews with authorized officials and offices." 

Forbidden are photographs of military installations and Malacanang, the pres-idential palace. Pictures of airports and seaports also are banned. 

News dispatches coming into the Philippines from abroad are being censored along with news stories written by Filipinos for home consumption or by foreign correspondents to be sent to other countries. 

According to indirect word received by the Associated Press in New York from Manila, even society news has been banned from Filipino newspapers and broadcast media. 

Dispatches that question or criticize any effort of the government are banned. Editorials and commentary are prohibited along with gossip columns. 

Night editor George Reyes at the Associated Press said he received the first tip at 1:25 a.m. Saturday from an anonymous woman caller that martial law—rumored for months but not expected—had been declared in the Philippines. Minutes later, office messenger Leonardo Mangulabnan and operator Pepito Mallare summoned Reyes to the office window. The three AP staffers saw troops gathered at the front door of the Manila Times building in which the AP office is located. 

Within minutes, a combat-clad national policeman walked into the AP office and told Reyes "please vacate the office and go home." Reyes protested. "What is this, has martial law been declared?" The trooper just smiled and replied: "Well, something like that, we are just following orders. You may go now, please." 

Office secretary Coring Campos, news editor Gil Santos and Lynn Newland quickly gathered at Santos Home, which served as a temporary office, where they were joined by former Manila bureau chief John Nance. The bureau then moved to the ITT building in downtown Manila, but was asked to leave several hours later for "security reasons." The bureau then moved hack to Santos' house, where operations continued until permission to reenter the office was received 30 hours later. The Times building remains off limits to all but AP staffers, who daily show their identity cards to Marine guards outside the building. 

Staffers quickly learned to ignore this routine and the daily visits of rifle-carrying national policemen. Other results of the newly imposed martial law are not as easily ignored, however, particularly censorship and a midnight to 4 a.m. cur-few. Censorship Filipino style is chaotic at best. "guidelines" detailing what can and cannot be written and photographed are vague. A typical regulation reads: "No foreign dispatch will be filed from the Philippines which impugns, discredits, questions or criticizes any positive effort of the government . . . nor will any dispatch be filed which speaks unfairly or inaccurately of the Philippines or Filipinos." If all else fails, the censors can rely on the following regulation: "These rules may be amended or modified without prior notice." 

That is an article from Editor and Publisher which is an industry magazine about the media published a week after Ferdinand Marcos had declared martial law. Immediately upon making the declaration the media was shut down and many newspaper men were imprisoned. Among them was  Eugenio Lopez Jr.

Editor and Publisher 1975-01-25: Vol 108 Iss 4

The Philippines, which once boasted of having a completely free press and observance of civil liberties, has suffered a complete about-face under the dictatorial regime of President Marcos. Freedom of the press has disappeared and once-free newspapers have been confiscated or closed.

The most celebrated case is that of Eugenio Lopez, Jr. and Sergio Osmona who were imprisoned two years ago for allegedly being involved in a plot to assassinate the president. They were never formally charged and only because of a hunger strike started last October has their case become prominent. 

The press and information officer of the Philippine Consulate in New York stated last Christmas that Lopez and Osmona were among 1.076 political detainees re-leased at that time by the government "under the president's policy of national reconciliation, solidarity and brotherhood announced last Dec. 11, 1974."

The fact of the matter is that the two men have not been released, are under heavy military guard in a military hospital. and as yet have not been charged with any crime. 

It is perhaps not well known that the Lopez family, once wealthy, gave up their properties in the Philippines for the safety and release of members of the family. Eugenio Lopez. Sr., now living in San Francisco gave this brief version in an interview recently with the Philippines News. published in that city: 

"When President Marcos declared Martial Law in September 1972, all of our family's major business enterprises were either taken over or ordered closed by the Philippine government. 

"The Manila Electric Company, (MECO) which supplies electricity to Manila and suburban areas continued to operate un-der the 'supervision' of appointed military personnel. The ABS-CBN corporation, the largest 'a-oadcasting company in the Philippines owning and operating 6 television stations and 21 radio stations was ordered to close all of its facilities. The Manila Chronicle daily newspaper, one of the most widely read newspapers in the country was also ordered closed. 

"The total assets of these three companies are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"In the course of the past two years, all these corporations have fallen into the hands of private individuals, individuals who are known to be close associates of Mr. and Mrs. Marcos and who have been branded by more knowledgeable persons as their 'front men', that is to say, individuals who are holding in their names properties on behalf of the Marcos family. 

"Most of the uninformed public assumed that 'the wealthy Lopez family sold their multimillion dollar business enterprises to the Philippine Government in order to liquidate their assets and get their cash out of the Philippines.' This impression was strengthened by the publicity given by the Philippine government to the 'sale' of the Manila Electric Company. 

"It is time now for the public to learn the truth. The Lopez family's properties were not sold to the Philippine government; in fact they have not been sold to anyone. Our properties were given to the Marcos family through its 'front men' in exchange for the release of my son and for the safety of our family. Some of our properties are now owned and/or oper-ated by the 'front men' through some `artificial agreements' and some of them have been taken over without any type of agreement, legal or illegal." 

The Lopez family has maintained its silence for two years in exchange for the life and freedom of Lopez, Jr., and the safety of other members of the family, according to Lopez, Sr. He has just recently started to speak out and tell the family's side of the dispute. 

He believes that only "pressure from the free world" can bring justice back to the Philippines, and we have to agree.

So, did this happen? Did the Lopez family give their properties to Marcos in order to free his son? Did Marcos shut down ABS-CBN as well as the Manila Chronicle? Ask anyone who voted for Bongbong Marcos and they might say no. They might say the above news reports are all lies. But are they? Can they really prove that the above news stories are all lies? 

Of course they cannot prove this never happened because it did happen. And it could happen again. That's why the truth about the Marcos dictatorship should never be forgotten. 

Convicted Felon and United States Fugitive Bongbong Marcos Has Won the Philippines Presidential Election

The greatest spin in the history of Philippine politics was completed on May 9th, 2022 as Bongbong Marcos, a convicted felon and wanted man in the USA, won more than 30 million votes to secure his position as the next President of the Philippines. 

Lacking any accomplishments worthy of the office of the President except being born into the Marcos family and bearing the name of his father Bongbong was able to fool enough voters into believing he is the man worthy to lead the Philippines for the next six yers. He garnered a large majority which landed him way past all the other candidates, especially his main rival Leni Robredo. There are trolls out in the social media sphere who claim this proves that Marcos was cheated in the 2016 elections when Robredo came from behind and snatched the office of Vice President from his hands.

Celebrities are irrelevant? Tell that to Robin Padilla who won more than 20 million votes to secure a seat in the Senate, a job for which he is by no means qualified. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1549310/robin-padilla-says-ejk-part-of-crime-fighting-duterte-drug-war-most-successful

Great job everybody!

Contrary to this DDS and Marcos revisionist with the ironic name Facts Only and nonsensical handle which indicates he is a troll (his account has since been deleted), the recount gave Leni MORE votes proving beyond all doubt that she duly won the 2016 VP  race. But these trolls are not interested in proof. Nor does Bongbong's win prove that EDSA was fake. All his election proves is that he got enough votes to win. But why did he get enough votes to win? How is it that the scion of the former dictator and plunderer of the Philippines was able to reclaim the throne for his family? Because of a massive amount of spin. 

Rigoberto Tiglao is one of the most high profile spin doctors in this nation. For the past six years he has done nothing but bloviate against the duly elected Vice President, Leni Robredo, and write article after article extolling the virtues of the Marcoses and bemoaning the evils of the Aquinos. Rather than address the promises that EDSA failed to deliver and give solutions on how they might be solved he, along with a host of others, has done a lot of hard work, i.e mudslinging, to dismiss EDSA as a CIA led fake revolution that should never have happened because Marcos was a stand up guy whom everybody loved and who the nation needed.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/05/09/opinion/columns/genuine-people-power-will-occur-today-at-the-polls/1842932

THE real, authentic expression of the people's will occurs today.

Unlike the bogus ones in 1986 and 2001 which were a Machiavellian mix of mobs and the threat of the use of force, this people power today will be expressed through secret ballots cast by at least 60 percent of voting citizens, who after more than a year of careful deliberation and relentless black propaganda by the Yellow elite, choose Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as their president.

The 1986 "People Power" hardly represented Filipinos' voice. Even using the reports of the Yellow-controlled vote counter, the Namfrel (National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections), nearly half (47 percent) of Filipinos still wanted BBM's father as president. The official Comelec results showed him the winner with 54 percent of votes. The US cleverly engineered a massing of warm bodies in front of Camp Crame with the people mostly there not demanding to topple Marcos but as Cardinal Sin told them, to prevent the bloody take-out of the mutineers holed up there.

The Communist Party, on the other hand, called for a full mobilization of their forces at its favorite target since the late 1960s, Malacañang, and were set to ram the gates — to be slaughtered by the Presidential Security Group, headed by Gen. Fabian Ver's two sons. Whether fearful of his life or, as he would claim later, to prevent bloodshed, Marcos rightly chose to vacate Malacañang, to move to his home province of Ilocos Norte, and the US offered to airlift him. After Cory Aquino was told about this, she demanded for Marcos to be shanghaied to Hawaii.

C'mon, is that People Power?

There you have it. Everything about the past 36 years has been based on a lie. EDSA was engineered by the US and the Communist Party. The real people power will be when the Marcos family is restored to the highest office in the land which is where they would have remained but for the Machiavellian machinations of Cory Aquino. But Tiglao is not done here.

Why do I say today will be the real People Power phenomenon? Most likely 64 percent to as high as 70 percent of Filipinos will vote BBM into power, based on polls and incorporating other factors not captured by polls, such as command votes for BBM (by the INC (Iglesia ni Cristo) among others) and bandwagon thinking among Filipinos.

This will be in total defiance of the elites who embrace the Yellow world view, the Church, American and international media, and the most powerful and most meddlesome nation on earth, the US — all of which for various, different reasons have thrown everything they can at BBM.

Tiglao is nuts. Marcos will win the vote in defiance of the Church, the USA, and International media? Does this hack not know that Filipinos LOVE the Church and the USA? Is he really that daft? No one voted for Marcos thinking, "Screw the USA and the Church." What a moron. They voted for Bongbong because they have been the victims of a massive and years long campaign to paint his father as the savior of this nation and all his opposers as evil liars who destroyed the promise he offered the Philippines.

But the bigger question Filipinos must really ask themselves on May 9 is what kind of a nation sends someone like Bongbong Marcos to even higher public office? A morally bankrupt nation of naïve and gullible voters who have set themselves up for more lies and evasions of the truth, that’s what. People have been sold a bill of goods once before; will they continue to buy more of the same toxic, made-in-Batac fairy tales? Seen from across the Pacific, there is more blind loyalty, sheer bullheadedness and self-delusion. It doesn’t seem like a people who have learned and learned deeply from a bitter past.

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/opinion-what-happens-if-bongbong-marcos-becomes-vice-president

This person gets right to the heart of the matter while Tiglao deflects from the truth about Marcos and about the people. They haven't come out of the dark and into the light. They have descended into the depths of darkness leaving the light of truth far behind. Or rather they have been bamboozled, blindfolded, and gaslighted by the Marcos family and men such as Rigoberto Tiglao who have decided to recast Ferdinand Marcos Sr. as just a little bit less than Jesus Christ or Lee Kuan Yew.

Secondly, data from surveys explain why BBM will win by a majority. His win will mainly be because of the conjunction of two phenomena. The Yellows (now Finks) refuse to see these phenomena that they have resorted to cockamamie theories that the BBM camp has effectively spread lies in social media, or that the youth voters have no recollection of martial law. (That social media has become dominant in people's voting choices has absolutely no empirical basis at all. There is roughly the same percentage of pro-BBM voters in all age cohorts.)

Cockamamie theories!? 

Is Rigoberto Tiglao really unaware that lies have been spread all over social media about the so-called Golden Age of Marcos? It is a undeniable fact that Marcos trashed the economy and plunged the nation into debt all while giving his cronies a piece of the pie and that he imprisoned and tortured thousands of people of which Tiglao was one. Yet the public has been told it was a Golden Age when much infrastructure was built and the nation was disciplined into shape by the loving whip of Marcos. The public is also told that Bongbong is a graduate of Oxford when in fact all he has is a special diploma. Bongbong is a bonafide liar! The entire public image presented by the Marcos family is a lie.

Indeed the Marcos family has been the subject of much disinformation especially during these past six years as Duterte has undermined the institutions of this nation and swayed the public into believing lies about its past starting with Marcos being a hero worthy of a hero's burial. Everything the Marcoses have said about the reign of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. has been a complete fabrication. There is a trail of court documents proving that the Marcos family stole billions from the coffers of the Philippines. Yet the people refuse to believe what was once widely known and is backed up by a massive amount of irrefutable evidence. 

The votes for BBM thus mean the majority of Filipinos judging that martial law wasn't the "Dark Age" the Yellows, and especially Robredo, have been shrieking against. Such will be done after years of being bombarded by Finks' black propaganda against BBM and mythologizing Robredo to cartoonish and then religious levels.

The third big factor for BBM's lead is his personality itself, which many think make him an ideal president: articulate, knowledgeable, diplomatic and not quarrelsome, intelligent and experienced in government — qualities that Robredo definitely lacks. If BBM for instance was as arrogant as Isko Moreno, or as inarticulate in English as Manny Pacquiao, as vacuous and inexperienced as Robredo, it would have been a steep uphill climb to the presidency, even with the two political titans pushing him up.

There has never been in our history two viewpoints dominant among our people — that the Duterte and Marcos Sr. regimes were good for the country — that are the powerful engines for the victory of a presidential candidate. No amount of gimmicks — faking crowds in rallies, ridiculous imaging attempts, endorsements by celebrities and by whatever groups — can stop these engines.

This right here is Tiglao's main argument. It is the main argument of many who seek to rehabilitate the Marcos family. The facts of history depend not on what actually happened but on what the people THINK happened. Court records and eyewitness testimony be damned! Thus any figure from the past is liable to being reimaged in the public's mind given the right PR campaign. In the USA Thomas Jefferson and George Washington have been reduced from beloved Founding Fathers to abominable slave owners in the space of a few decades. Likewise in the Philippines the Marcos family has gone from shunned kleptocrats to mythologized and beloved saviors of this nation. 

It cannot be doubted that the failures of living up to the promise of EDSA is to blame for a lot of that mythologizing. If Cory Aquino and her successors had come along and actually been up to the task of restructuring, reworking, and rebuilding the Philippines then we might not be here today seeing the son of the dictator being handed the reins of power by the very same people his father once oppressed.

But corruption is a given at every level of government in the Philippines. Cory was a housewife who won solely because she was the widow of Marcos' rival, Benigno Aquino Sr. She is the face of Philippine necropolitics which is all too prevalent in this nation because assassins routinely gun down political opponents and their spouses rise up to bear the mantle on their shoulders. She had no plans to run and no idea what to do when she decided to run but listened whole heartedly to her advisers as her VP Doy Laurel confessed.

One day, she told the Cardinal: "I will run. I have decided. My decision was made on December 8." It was the closing of the Marian Year. Cory was then on retreat at the Pink Sisters Convent. "I am sure to run. It is God's will," she repeated.

Our first meeting was at her house on Times Street on Saturday, November 23 at 5:00 p.m. I told her she should not run. "You are are Ninoy's widow. If you run, they will attack you and vilify NInoy. Your victory will be Ninoy's victory but your defeat will also be his defeat. You should not risk that. When you go up a boxing ring and put on gloves, they will hit you even if you are a lady. You should just be our symbol - above and beyond the fray. Let me do the fighting, let me take the blows for you," I said. But she did not answer. It was obvious that she was told just to listen by a hidden group of advisers.

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2022/01/book-review-neither-trumpets-nor-drums.html 

But should she be blamed for not rectifying everything Ferdinand Marcos destroyed? Cory was literally working with NOTHING because Marcos had stripped the nation bare. Even her husband knew that the absence of Marcos would leave a vacuum.

MJ: So you believe that Marcos really is the key?

AQUINO: I've already said that. In 1973 I wrote him a memo. I wrote him a detailed memo on how to bring the country back on track. He picked up a few points in that memo: he lifted martial law as I suggested; he called for elections as I suggested. But he was very selective. He liked the points that dovetailed with his own ideas. But other matters, which could have completed the picture, he junked. Still., I've always held that Marcos is the key, and if he goes tomorrow, by George, the Philippines is going to have a hell of a time until someone else emerges from the scramble. 

MJ: What if you were that person? 

AQUINO: If you made me president of the Philippines today, my friend, in six months I would be smelling like horseshit. Because there's nothing I can do. I cannot provide employment. I cannot bring prices down. I cannot stop the criminality spawned by economic difficulties. I mean, let's face it. When people are hungry, you can bring down St. Peter and you won't get a stable government. So, this must be anchored collectively on the free world. 

https://philippinefails.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-conversation-with-benigno-aquino-1983.html 

If Cory is to be blamed then even more so her advisers who knew how to manipulate her.

We can't judge the meaning or truth of EDSA based solely on the outcome. When the Philippines declared independence in 1898 and sent out delegations to foreign nations to have that independence recognized they were turned down. True independence did not come until 1946. But that does not stop Filipinos from celebrating Independence Day as June 12th, 1898. Likewise EDSA had noble intentions even if they were not fully realized. The solution is to carry out those promises, not to glorify or seek to return to a past which was objectively bad and has been documented so through every metric used to analyze the years Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was president.

During the next six years we are going to see people crowing about how EDSA was a lie and how Marcos was actually a savior because his son Bongbong won the presidency. We are going to see convicted felon Imelda Marcos strutting through the Palace reliving her salad days. We are going to see history rewritten even though it stands written firmly in the blood of those who lived through and died during the Marcos dictatorship as well as in court records convicting the Marcos family of financial crimes. This crowing will be based not on facts but on appeals to emotion. After all, if the people voted for Bongbong surely that means his father was not so bad after all. Right? 

Did Cory Aquino Really Have Lunch with Tom Cruise in 1989?

Did Cory Aquino really have lunch with Tom Cruise when he was in the Philippines filming Born on the Fourth of July back in 1989? Why even ask? Because this event is used by Marcos revisionists to paint Marcos as a saint who wished to give 90% of his wealth to the Filipino people and Cory as an evil woman who spurned that offer. Let's take a look at this strange tale.

This story originates in former Vice President under Cory Aquino Salvador Laurel's book Neither Trumpets nor Drums. Laurel was summoned by Marcos to visit him in Hawaii on February 3-4 1989. During that visit Marcos had a confidential message he wanted given to President Aquino.

“Please tell Mrs. Aquino to stop sending her relatives to me," he continued. "They are proposing  so many things. I have already established a foundation and I am turning over 90% of all my worldly possessions to the Filipino people. Enrique Zobel has all the papers. He and the Papal Nuncio, Msgr. Torpigliani, will sit in the Board to see to it that 90% of all that I have are properly distributed to our people. That is much better than what Mrs' Aquino's relatives have been proposing. I am leaving only 10% for my family."

p. 108 

Upon his return to the Philippines Doy went to visit Cory in order to relay the message but she refused to see him. He notes that she "allotted an hour to Tom Cruise."

I hurried back to Manila to transmit Marcos' message to President Aquino. I asked for an appointment but Cory would not see me. Here I was, her own Vice President, asking only for three minutes of her time to convey a very important message from her predecessor, and she would not see me. I was told she was busy. Later I was told that she allotted an hour to Tom Cruise, the American movie actor.

p. 108

Laurel then wrote Cory a letter imploring her to receive Marcos' message.

"I hope you will find time to listen to the highly confidential message of Mr. Marcos considering its serious import and far-reaching consequences upon your administration and the nation as a whole"

Cory replied:

"I have since Friday, February 3rd, received a copy of the letter of Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. As to the highly confidential message from Ferdinand E. Marcos, I feel that in the light of your representation of its 'serious import and far-reaching consequences upon your (my) administration and the nation as a whole, such a message should be disclosed to the public rather than kept confidential. This is in accordance with my announced policy of utmost transparency in the management of the affairs of the country."

p. 108-109

He writes a reply hoping she will change her mind and receive the message directly from him but she refuses. He then assesses this situation calling her refusal to receive the message "her biggest mistake."

Cory's refusal to receive Marcos' message was perhaps her biggest mistake. Had she received the message openmindedly, and studied it carefully, she might have obtained enough money to pay off half of our foreign debt and only 20 percent of the budget would have to be set aside for debt service. The other 20 percent would have freed billions of pesos for infrastructure, roads, peace and order, education, etc.

p. 110

He then cites an unnamed commentator who had this to say about Cory's refusal to receive Marcos' message.

"With the decision of the Hawaii court that victims of the Marcos' martial law atrocities, brutalities and inhumanities are entitled to payment 

"How much would 90 percent of Marcos' money be? If he had squirreled away $10 billion, the top figure mentioned bu those who speculated on Marcos' wealth, the government would have received $9 billion. 

"How much shoring up of a faltering government could have been done? Unless Marcos had specified as condition that the money he was returning would be for specific purposes like paying the foreign debt, it is possible that Cory would have channeled most of it to her favorite projects  like the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). She would probably not have turned the money to the treasury to be appropriated by the Congress. Perhaps, unless Marcos has specified the uses of his money, it might have been dissipated in other favorite projects of Cory.

"But if the $9 billion would have been utilized properly, the country would have been lifted from its status as a beggar nation. With wise planning and honest spending, the Philippines might have had a chance to become one of the tigers of Southeast Asia.

"There is nothing sadder than what might have been. It is even sadder than being the basket case of Asia-Pacific. To have had $9 billion on hand and squandered it on favorite projects, the tragedy would have been double. So, the way things actually turned out might have been better than becoming  suddenly a rich nation that did not know how to make its riches permanent. Under Cory, there would have been very little chance that matters would have materially improved.

"The biggest error of the Cory administration was to spurn Doy and the message he carried from Honolulu."

p. 111

Whoever wrote that commentary is a real piece of work. He starts off saying so much good could have been done had Cory received the message and the money from Marcos. Then he says Cory would have wasted it anyway so its probably better the money was not received. Then he finishes by saying her biggest error was to spurn Doy and his message and thus not receive the money. Pick a scenario please! Either Cory would have wasted the money or she would not have wasted the money. If it was her biggest mistake to not receive the message and money then that assumes she would not have wasted it. 

Of course these scenarios rest on the assumption that Marcos would actually have given 90% of his wealth or $9 billion to the Philippines. But did you know that there is more to the story? Imelda Marcos was dead set against the idea.

Anyway. Doy Laurel was approaching the core of his conversation with Ferdinand Marcos. The dying ex-president chose his words carefully: "I have decided to donate to the Philippine government and the Filipino people 90 percent of the Marcos wealth. We the Marcos family will get only 10 percent and no more. I want that to be very clear. I want you to communicate that to President Aquino. We will take care of the details later." Laurel was dumbfounded. The amount of wealth was not mentioned but the estimate at that time was about 10 to 15 billion US dollars. In any language – fantabulous! 

But right there and then in the hospital, Laurel realized the whole thing, the proffered donation, what seemed to be the last will of the dying ex-dictator, wouldn’t work. Imelda, according to Laurel, heard the whole conversation. And she told Doy as he left Marcos’ bed – this according to Doy – that they, the Marcoses, particularly she, Imelda, would only agree to 70 to 75 percent going to the government, while they would retain 25 to 30 percent. "Ten percent is out of the question," she said. Imelda held dominion and that was that. The empress dowager had spoken. 

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2001/12/05/142497/doy-macoy-yorac-corner

Why did Laurel not include his exchange with Imelda in his book? Her refusal sheds more light on this situation. Knowing that Laurel knew this offer would not work reveals that there was nothing for Cory to refuse in the first place because Imelda would not have let it happen. So, why paint a picture of him pleading with Cory to a receive a message which he knew would ultimately be fruitless?

But did Marcos actually say he would give 90% of his wealth to the government? No. He did not say that. Here is his message:

I have already established a foundation and I am turning over 90% of all my worldly possessions to the Filipino people. Enrique Zobel has all the papers. He and the Papal Nuncio, Msgr. Torpigliani, will sit in the Board to see to it that 90% of all that I have are properly distributed to our people.

Marcos said he had ALREADY established a foundation and he said, "I AM TURNING OVER 90% OF ALL MY WORLDLY POSSESSIONS TO THE FILIPINO PEOPLE." There is no offer here. There is nothing contingent about his turning over 90% of his wealth. This is a pledge. Marcos said he had already set up a foundation to distribute his wealth.  The Papal Nuncio and Filipino businessman Erinque Zobel were appointed to the Board to oversee this distribution. There is nothing said about giving a one time lump sum to the government. From the sound of it the foundation would have distributed the money to the people directly. 

The real issue in this situation is not that Cory refused the message and thus the money. The real issue is that Marcos did not follow through on his promise to set up a foundation through which he would distribute his money directly to the Filipino people. Doy and the commentator are both wrong in their assessment of this event. Even Wikipedia gets this story wrong referring to Marcos' pledge as an offer.

During the meeting with Laurel, Marcos offered to return 90% of his ill-gotten wealth to the Filipino people in exchange for being buried back in the Philippines beside his mother, an offer also disclosed to Enrique Zobel. However, Marcos's offer was rebuffed by the Aquino government and by Imelda Marcos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos#Death_and_burial

At least this article mentions Imelda's refusal to go along with her husband's plan. 

What happened to the foundation Marcos claimed he had already established? The roots of this pledge extend back to the end of 1969. On December 31, 1969 Marcos wrote in his diary that he had planned to set up a foundation to distribute all his worldly goods to the Filipino people.

https://philippinediaryproject.wordpress.com/1970/01/01/january-1-1970/

I have today given away by general instrument of transfer all my worldly possessions to the Filipino people through a foundation to be organized known as the Marcos Foundation. 

Moved by the strongest desire and the purest will to set the example of self-denial and self-sacrifice for all our people, I have today decided to give away all my worldly possessions so that they may serve the greater needs of the greater number of our people.

It is my wish that these properties will be used in advancing education, science, technology and the arts. 

This act I undertake of my own free will, knowing that my need of material possessions will, having always been a simple man, my needs will always be lesser that those of many of our people, who have given me the highest honor within their gift, an honor unshared by any one of my predecessors and not likely to be shared by any one else in the future no other Filipino leader.

Since about a year ago, I have asked my closest some of very my closest confidants to study the mechanics of this decision. Today studies have been completed, and a foundation will be formed to administer these properties and all funds that may be generated therefrom.

My wife, Imelda, is in agreement with this decision. Provisions will be made for my children, so that they shall be assured of satisfactory education and be prepared to meet their lifetime duties and endeavors. 

For the moment, my most sincere hope is that this humble act shall set the example and move to greater deeds of unselfishness and compassion, many of our countrymen whose position in society gives them a stronger duty to minister to the needs of our less fortunate brothers and countrymen.

It seems that he never did establish the foundation he had dreamt of in 1969 as it was Enrique Zobel who in 1989 suggested that he establish a foundation to distribute his wealth.

From Zobel's deposition before a Blue Ribbon Committee in Hawaii on October 27, 1999 we read the following about the genesis of this foundation:

THE  CHAIRMAN.  All right.  You also indicated in  the  same affidavit,   paragraph  10,  that you  suggested  to   him   the establishment  of a foundation for the interest of  the Filipino people. Can you tell this Committee what his  reaction to  that suggestion?

MR.  ZOBEL.    He said, that was an excellent idea  and,  in fact, he has--if I do this, would you please be the chairman.   I said,  Mr. President, if I am the chairman, I will be sued  right and  left  by the people in Manila for envy, so please why  don't you  choose  someone  Filipinos will not sue.  Then he  asked  me who?   I said, well, the Vatican.   So, he said, excellent  idea. Could you please arrange to talk to Papal  Nuncio in Manila,  who was Torpigliani then.

The foundation was ultimately not put into force.

THE  CHAIRMAN.  All right.   Now, let's pursue the  question of  the  establishment  of  a  foundation.   Can  you  tell  this Committee whether or not the foundation was, in fact, formed?

MR.  ZOBEL.   It was not formed.   The Papal Nuncio,  I  was able to talk to him through Father Alarcon who brought me to  his residence  in front of La Salle, and he went to Rome.   He  first came, talked to the President and the President made a confession with  him but he can't tell to the priest.  But he went  to  Rome and  he  got the foundation  but instead of the Vatican,  it  was Torpigliani, which was the--he had the title changed in Rome.  It should  be  the trust of the Vatican.  That was the  only  thing. Otherwise, everything was in order.

Zobel had set everything up with a lawyer.

THE CHAIRMAN.  It will have more weight. Now,  regarding  the formation of this foundation,  did  you have to employ the services of a lawyer?

MR.  ZOBEL.   Yes.   I  employed the services  of  Mr.  Mike Garcia, who is a lawyer in Honolulu.  In fact, he charged me  the bill because Marcos died so I have to pay the bill which is 4,000 dollar.  I have the receipt here.

Zobel then testified that Marcos was unable to sign any documents because the local doctor would not allow him to since he was not mentally competent. Two Filipino doctors were summoned to certify Marcos' lucidity but they were barred by the Bureau of Immigration from leaving the country.

THE CHAIRMAN.  All right.   Now, regarding your meeting with Vice  President Laurel, can you tell this Committee what was  the tenor of your conversation with him?

MR.  ZOBEL.   Yes.   There  were two  things--two  important things  came  about.  One was to send two doctors, I  forgot  the names,   and  I  have the record of their flight, everything was arranged.   To check if Marcos could really talk or not,  because the  doctor here said, he could not and so we could not establish the  foundation.    But  at the airport,  then  health  secretary Bengzon stopped them at Immigration, didn't allow them to  board, upon orders of Cory.

Zobel testified that Vice President Laurel told him that the two doctors summoned to certify Marcos' lucidity to sign the documents establishing the foundation were prevented from leaving the country on the orders of Cory. 

Why does Salvador Laurel not mention this fact in his book Neither Trumpets nor Drums? He mentions that Marcos said he set up a foundation but he neglects to tell us that he was not lucid enough to actually sign any legal documents and needed two Filipino doctors to give the ok and that they were prevented from leaving the country on orders of Cory Aquino. Why? That is very pertinent information which makes his analysis that Cory's biggest mistake was her refusal to receive Marcos' message just plain wrong. By February 1989 Marcos was in no state to be setting up a foundation or making any decision about what to do with his wealth. It also raises the question of why these doctors were prevented from leaving. Did Cory know that they were going to certify Marcos as being lucid so he could sign documents establishing a foundation? But that would mean she knew the content of Marcos' secret message before Laurel returned from Hawaii and asked for an audience. Something is missing here.

The deposition continues: 

SEN.  FLAVIER.  I see.   In sum, the foundation never really got born, so to speak?

MR. ZOBEL.   Because the doctors  did not allow him to sign. But  you see that foundation of his gold was revocable until  the government had agreed on the two conditions, that would  be  come automatically irrevocable.

SEN.  FLAVIER.    I see. And so it was that illness  that prevented the final signing of the foundation papers?

MR.  ZOBEL.    No.   His health, the local doctor would  not certify....They would certify that he was capable of  knowing  he was signing.

SEN.  FLAVIER.   I see. It was the certification that he was lucid and able to sign that document?

MR. ZOBEL.  Correct.

SEN.  FLAVIER.  Those two doctors I happened to  know,  then Dr. Sawit  and Dr. Alano were notallowed to come?

MR.  ZOBEL.   Were not allowed to leave Manila Airport  when they had the tickets on hand.

SEN. FLAVIER.  Did you get an inkling of why?

MR.  ZOBEL.    Well, according to Doy, he told me  that  the doctors were stopped by an order to Immigration from Secretary of Health which was Bengzon.   Bengzon ba? 

SEN. FLAVIER.  Yes.

MR.  ZOBEL.   Bengzon.  That's what the Vice President told me.

Zobel says that the foundation was revocable until the two conditions, being buried in the Philippines and his family protected from government prosecution, were met which gives weight to this being an offer and not a mere pledge. But coupled with Marcos' exact words to Doy Laurel and his desire in 1969 to set up a foundation to transfer his wealth to the Filipino people it would seem that it was more of a pledge than an offer. If Marcos had signed the documents it would be hard to imagine him suddenly revoking the whole thing because two conditions were not met. At least if he were serious about helping out his countrymen it would seem unlikely he would revoke the foundation. 

Here is how the foundation would have worked:

THE CHAIRMAN.    All right.  I think we can resume.Mr.  Zobel,  will  you  kindly tell this  Committee  if  you remember the terms of  that--the term of sharing of the wealth of Mr. Marcos as put into the foundation agreement?

MR. ZOBEL. It's in the Vatican trust.  But if I recall right, 10 percent would go to the Marcos family, the wife and children. 

THE CHAIRMAN. Ten percent. 

MR.  ZOBEL. Ten percent would go to the Vatican  for  the poor people and in the missions. 

THE CHAIRMAN.   And in the... 

MR.  ZOBEL.   In the missions for the Vatican to dispose of. One percent to the people in Hawaii that were loyal to him. And then I don't know. But the rest would go to the foundation to be used specifically or schools, hospitals and infrastructure and agriculture.

This set-up would leave only 79% for the Filipino people which is less than the amount Marcos promised to Laurel. Note that none of that money is going to the government coffers generally but is specified to be used in certain sectors. It is not clear that the money would even be distributed through government agencies though that is likely.

Even if Cory had agreed to what Marcos had planned the foundation would never have been a reality. In the first place Marcos was in no state to legally consent to such a plan as he was bedridden in the ICU and he could not even talk due to a tracheotomy. Local doctors would not approve of his signing any legal documents so Zobel was reduced to hiring two Filipino doctors travel to Hawaii so they could clear Marcos. Even if they had been allowed to travel by the BI their decision to clear Marcos as being lucid would have been highly unethical and likely have been challenged successfully in court if anyone cared to do so. Second of all Imelda was dead set against this idea as she told Doy Laurel she wanted to keep 30% of the wealth. With these very real factors considered (Marcos' incapacity due to poor health and Imelda's resistance) one cannot blame Cory Aquino for keeping Marcos from distributing his wealth to the Filipino people by "rejecting his offer." Marcos had ample time to set up the foundation he had first proposed back in 1969. Marcos would remain in the ICU until his death on September 28th, 1989. 

These facts do not even take into account the question of just how much wealth Marcos had and how much of it was his lawfully. If Zobel's testimony is to be believed Marcos had amassed much more than $10 billion dollars.

THE  CHAIRMAN.  So,  are you telling  the  Committee,  Mr. Zobel,  that  there is basis for this figure  of  the  amount  of Marcos wealth running to several billions of U.S. dollars?

MR.  ZOBEL.  Yes. I would take gold, assets and  dollars over  all comments  even  bank certificates,  I  would  say 100 billion.

That is Zobel's estimate of the value of Marcos' fortune. Truly a mind-boggling sum in every way.

Several foundations were set-up by Marcos but none of them were for the purpose of transferring his wealth to the Filipino people. They were all used to hide his assets. These include the Xandy Foundation, the Trinidad Foundation, the Azizo Foundation, the Rosayls Foundation, the Charis Foundation, and the Rayby Foundation. See more at this link.

But what about Tom Cruise? Did Cory meet him? From Doy's account it would appear she met with him for an hour. The South China Morning Post greatly expands on this story.

Actually, Doy was the last Filipino politician to talk to Marcos before he died in Hawaii. Marcos gave him a final message to deliver to his nemesis, Cory Aquino, but when Doy arrived at Malacanang Palace to see Cory he was told that she was unable to see him because of a pressing engagement (which turned out to be lunch with Hollywood star Tom Cruise).

https://www.scmp.com/article/43566/coy-doy-stays-quiet-reasons-visit

Lunch with Tom Cruise sounds pretty awesome. But did it really happen? No. The appointed visit was scheduled a few days before Doy Laurel returned from Hawaii. Tom was late and Cory did not want to wait around for him.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/01/31/Quirks-in-the-News/6774602226000/

Despite pleas from her daughter to wait for a 'chance of a lifetime' meeting with actor Tom Cruise, President Corazon Aquino went home Monday when the Hollywood star failed to appear on time.

'Hey, Kris, I waited for them.

Just tell them I waited,' Aquino told her daughter before departing the presidential palace. Aquino is known for her punctuality -- a trait uncommon among Filipinos.

'Please mom, it's a chance of a lifetime,' said Kris, an aspiring actress who will turn 18on Valentine's Day.

Presidential palace aides said Aquino was as excited as her daughter in meeting Cruise.

Kris Aquino had invited Cruise to the presidential palace before his departure for the United States after filming the Vietnam War film 'Fourth of July' in the Philippines.

Cruise, accompanied by his wife, Mimi Rogers, strolled into the palace wearing a black air force cap, printed polo shirt over blue denims and rubber shoes long after the president had left.

'I am sorry you missed my mom,' said Kris to Cruise.

A later article says Cruise was 5 minutes late so Cory left.

How do we reconcile this with Doy's account? It's not very hard. Doy was told by someone else that Cory had allotted an hour to meet with Tom Cruise. He never says Cory actually met with Tom Cruise. But the way the book is written it appears that Cory would not meet with Doy BECAUSE she was meeting with Tom Cruise. That is exactly how the SCMP frames the event. In fact they even expand the narrative calling it a lunch. Only Kris Aquino knows for sure what happened but I do not have the privilege of being able to ask her. I bet she has pictures.

Book Review: Neither Trumpets nor Drums

Neither Trumpets nor Drums is a memoir written by former Vice President Salvador "Doy" Laurel about his time in the Cory Aquino administration. Rather than being a pean to or a complete takedown of Cory Aquino, Salvador Laurel gives his honest impressions of the time both documenting his hope for her Presidency after years of martial law under Marcos and his disappointment at what actually happened. The subtitle is Summing up the Cory Government.

The major drawback of this book is that it is a big tease. Though Salvador Laurel offers "revelatory" insights and behind-the-scenes stories about Cory Aquino’s governance he never explores them. It's all a sketch with a very faint outline. He skips over a great deal during the period of 1986-1987.  For instance, while he makes a big to-do about Cory scraping the constitution and imposing a revolutionary government he never once mentions the newly written Constitution and the 1987 plebiscite. That is a huge and stunning omission. 

Several times he mentions people were secretly advising Cory but he never asks "who." He seems disinterested in that subject as if their identities are obvious and either we should know or perhaps he would rather not say. For instance, Doy notes that Cory Aquino swore to him she would never seek the nomination for the Presidency and to show her sincerity she nominated him at the UNIDO convention. But then she heard a voice from God and decided to run. Doy did not think it was the voice of God speaking:

One day, she told the Cardinal: "I will run. I have decided. My decision was made on December 8." It was the closing of the Marian Year. Cory was then on retreat at the Pink Sisters Convent. "I am sure to run. It is God's will," she repeated.

Our first meeting was at her house on Times Street on Saturday, November 23 at 5:00 p.m. I told her she should not run. "You are are Ninoy's widow. If you run, they will attack you and vilify NInoy. Your victory will be Ninoy's victory but your defeat will also be his defeat. You should not risk that. When you go up a boxing ring and put on gloves, they will hit you even if you are a lady. You should just be our symbol - above and beyond the fray. Let me do the fighting, let me take the blows for you," I said. But she did not answer. It was obvious that she was told just to listen by a hidden group of advisers.

p. 37-38

Why is it obvious she was being advised by a hidden group? Who were these people? Doy refers to this hidden cabal again a few paragraphs later.

Our fifth meeting was held at the Puyat residence in Quezon City. Present were my brother Sotero, Cory's daughter Ballsy, and our host, the late Vincente "Teng" Puyat. On that day, Cory confided to me that she was not really interested in running the government. She simply wanted to be the instrument to remove Marcos. Since she did not know anything about running a government, she said she would be just a ceremonial President, like Queen Elizabeth.

She then offered me the Prime Ministership and promised to step down after two years. She offered 30 percent of the Cabinet, the remaining 70 percent to be appointed after prior consultation between us. All these were written on a piece of paper which she initialed, item by item, on the left margin of the document.

I asked for time to decide. Early the next morning, I left alone for my beach house in Matabungkay. I had to make the hardest decision in my life. I knew Ninoy well. His word was good. But I did not know Cory well enough. Could I trust her? Would her word be as good as Ninoy's? Or was she a mere instrument of her family's interests and her hidden advisers? It was obvious that she has been changing her position and reneging on her words because her secret advisers had been changing her agenda for her.

p. 39

Those are explosive revelations that Salvador Laurel simply does not explore. Not here and not even in his concluding remarks. He never asks who "her secret advisers" might be or what were her family's interests and how they affected her governance. He also never discusses the fact that she said she would step down after two years to make way for Doy. Did he really think Cory offering to step down after two years to make way for him was actually going to happen? Did he really think that it was an ethical offer? He must have since he accepted the offer and later asks her why she reneged on those promises.

These hidden advisers return when Salvador Laurel discusses Cory's decision to abolish the constitution.

I felt it ironic that after abolishing a dictatorship, we should again resort to dictatorial power by abrogating the Constitution and governing by decree. It had become apparent that Cory's manipulators had planned from the very start that they would monopolize power through Cory.

I recall, for instance, that a few minutes before we took our oath on February 25, 1986, Cory showed me the text of her oath of office. I noticed that instead of the phrase "preserve and defend the Constitution of the Philippines," what she had typed out was "preserve and defend the Fundamental Law," obviously prepared by her hidden advisers.

p. 54-55

If "Cory's manipulators had planned from the very start that they would monopolize power through Cory" then it should be rather easy to discover their identities and to figure out exactly what their plan was. Likely it would come through the new Constitution. But Doy skips over that whole period. He does not discuss the writing of the new constitution at all. Not even a blurb. Nothing. Nada. That is a glaring omission of arguably the most important event after EDSA. Why does he do this? He is writing a book exposing the truth about the Cory Aquino administration and he charges her with being manipulated by others seeking to seize power through the abolition of the Constitution and the writing of a new one but he never explores that line of thought. That makes no sense espeically as Laurel is very critical of her decision to trash the 1973 Constitution.

History might have taken a different course if Cory had not abolished the 1973 Constitution. If her avowed objective was to achieve political stability at the earliest possible date, she should have repealed only the Marcos amendments, particularly Amendment No. 6, which had perpetuated one-man-rule. It was like burning a house just to kill a rat.

But Cory chose to burn the entire house. In her attempt to demolish the infrastructure of dictatorship, Cory wrecked the entire political structure and thus delayed and derailed the application of needed solutions to our worsening problems. Her policy of vengeance and retribution likewise fueled a power struggle that would last beyond the end of her term.

p. 59-60

Again, explosive revelation with nothing to back it up. He never gives a single example of "her policy of vengeance and retribution" nor does he discuss this "power struggle." Who was struggling for power? How and to whom did Cory show "vengeance and retribution?"

The issue of the Constitution returns again on page 117. This time Laurel claims he discovered a plot to dissolve Congress and invest the President with legislative powers.

In 1991, I exposed a surreptitious plan to convert Congress into a constituent body with the objective of changing our form of government to the parliamentary system. Although I am not per se against the parliamentary system, the haste and stealth with which the House railroaded Concurrent Resolution No. 42 made it highly suspicious. Not enough time was given for the thorough discussion and deliberation of such a major issue. House Concurrent Resolution No. 42 would convert the Congress into a constituted assembly to amend the Constitution, dissolve both houses of Congress, and then unconstitutionally vest the President with legislative power. Some commentators saw this as an illicit attempt on the part of Cory's manipulators to extend her tenure.

p. 117

That such a brazen plan that Salvador Laurel himself exposed gets only this lame paragraph is brazen in itself. How would this plan have worked exactly? Who were its authors? Why does he refuse to name names? Why does he refuse to discuss who Cory's manipulators might be? Surely Doy was not a stupid man and knew exactly who these people were but he chooses to leave us in the dark.

Laurel does not only brush over the actions of Cory. He brushes over the entire 6 year period of 1986-1992. Here is one example among many.

The most controversial forum took place on March 4, 1991 on the subject of amnesty. At that time, the Secretary of National Defense and the Chief of the AFP were opposed to the idea of a general unconditional amnesty and had proposed instead the grant of a conditional and selective amnesty - a move which stirred very heated discussions. 

I have always maintained that the country's sad star of disunity and disorder is one of the main causes of our economic mess. A nation cannot move forward amidst disunity and disorder. And so we chose "Imperatives of National Unity" as our topic for the sixth CCF.

In preparing for the forum, I met with top military officers in Camp Aguinaldo and visited captured military rebels in their cells. Reports and video tapes of my meetings became the main resource for materials for discussion. A consensus was reached, among others, that the proclamation of a general amnesty accompanied by vigorous institutional reforms, including all-out war against graft and corruption, was the key political solution consistent with the Constitution. 

Because there was yet no Presidential Proclamation of general amnesty to which Congress would concur, the forum urged the President to fill the legal vacuum by issuing a new Presidential Proclamation and to determine once and for all, with the concurrence of Congress, whether such amnesty would be conditional, general or selective. 

p. 119-120

What is he talking about? Amnesty for who and for what? This talk of amnesty comes straight out of nowhere.  At this point in the book it is 1991 and he has mentioned no coups at all except for the one which took place on August 28th, 1987. There were actually nine coups throughout Cory's term. Laurel finally mentions those coups several pages later on pages 135-137 but he says only two were serious. He actually calls the Manila Hotel coup a "cocktail party!"

The Manila Hotel incident of July 6, 1986 was more of a cocktail party than a coup. Although Senator Arturo Tolentino was perhaps dead serious when he proclaimed himself Acting President, the theoretical basis on which he propped himself up was old hat. He claimed that ht legislature had legally proclaimed him and Marcos; but that proclamation had already been superseded  by the EDSA revolt. Besides, nobody was hurt in that tragic-comic episode and the punishment meted out to the conspirators was "thirty push-ups.

p. 136

The Davide Commission report of 1990 gives a completely different account of this so-called "tragic-comic" "cocktail party."

https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/1990/10oct/199010-Report-Fact-Finding-Commission.pdf

Barely five months after the assumption into office of President Aquino, a group of armed military men and supporters of former President Marcos occupied the Manila Hotel for 37 hours ostensibly demanding constitutional reform and stronger anti-communist measures, on one hand, while declaring their own government, on the other. There were at least 490 fully-armed soldiers and some 5,000 Marcos loyalists who witnessed former Senator, Foreign Minister, and Marcos's Vice-Presidential running mate Arturo Tolentino take his "oath of office" as "acting President" of the Philippines on behalf of Marcos, who was then exiled in Hawaii. The hotel was declared as the temporary "seat of government". 

p. 135

490 fully-armed soldiers and 5,000 Marcos loyalists showed up to the party. On page 142 of the report there is mention of P10 million worth of damages done to the hotel including cancelled bookings caused by this "cocktail party."  A contemporary report from the Chicago Tribune expands on that.

The last time Tolentino was in the Manila Hotel, his supporters had trashed the place. 

The gleaming Italian restaurant, where Tolentino sat behind a starched white table cloth drinking ice water Monday morning, had been littered then with mud, paper cups, spilled rice and chicken bones. 

Carpets had been pulled up and doors had been kicked in. Phones had been ripped from the walls and safe deposit boxes had been pried open. 

In all, hotel officials said there was $500,000 worth of damage, all done in the name of Tolentino, who proudly proclaimed himself the proxy of Marcos. Tolentino and most of his followers managed to avoid any major reprisals for their actions.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-10-14-8603170548-story.html

That's some "cocktail party!" Why does Salvador Laurel dismiss the seriousness and significance of this coup attempt? We shall never know.

One has to wonder what the real agenda behind this book is. Every paragraph is written in such a way as to leave the reader expecting the next revelation. Here is one such revelation.

Cory's claim about having restored democracy has to be examined against the facts. When Cory assumed office, a number of media establishments were found to have been operating under Marcos rule as state enterprises. In line with the principle that the press must be free from government control, a process of restoring these media outfits to their original or rightful owners was set in motion. Cory aborted the process by keeping a number of TV and radio stations on sequestry status.

Up to the end of her term, these sequestered media functioned as propaganda arms of her government, competing with the private media, and unabashedly obfuscating issues in her favor.

p. 143-144

As awful as that sounds Laurel offers no proof for this claim. He does not name a single one of the media establishments she kept as a propaganda arm nor does he show any of the said propaganda. I am not accusing him of lying. I am accusing him of not being forthcoming with the whole truth. From the introduction we are told that the purpose of this work is to assess the Cory Aquino government. But there is no assessment going on here, only a superficial description of events. There is a quick movement from one event to the next focusing primarily on the work of Salvador Laurel and not the governance of Cory Aquino. I suppose he could be forgiven having written this book in 1992 when the long term effects of her administration could not yet be seen. 

If there is anything that could be called an assessment of Cory Aquino's presidency it is the oft cited "love letter" Laurel wrote to her on August 13, 1988. Here are a few excerpts.

We promised our people morality and decency in government. What do we have instead? The very opposite. It is now openly admitted by many, including your former Solicitor-General and some of your own close relatives in Congress, that the stench of “accumulated garbage” — I’m quoting your own first cousin, Congressman Emigdio Tanjuatco, Jr. — rises to high heaven; that the last years of Marcos are now beginning to look no worse than your first two years in office. And the reported controversies and scandals involving your closest relatives have become the object of our people’s outrage. 

We promised to ‘break the back’ of the insurgency. But what is the record? From 16,500 NPA regular when Marcos fell, the communists now claim an armed strength of 25,200, of which 2,500 are in Metro Manila. They have infiltrated not only the trade unions, the schools, the churches and the media but your government, above all, and now ‘affect’ 20 percent of the country’s 42,000 barangays, according to official statistics. 

The truth is that the peace and order situation is much worse today than when you came into office. It is now the number one problem of the nation. 

From city to countryside, anarchy has spread. There is anarchy within the government, anarchy within the ruling coalesced parties, and anarchy in the streets. These require your direct intervention. Yet you continue to ignore this problem.

p. 90-95

Once again these are scathing accusations that he has chosen not to explore or mention except for in this letter. Just before the text of this letter begins Laurel gives the context for which he has written it. Laurel had been ordered by Aquino to resign as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the stupidest reason possible.

All I could make out was that she wanted the resignation of the entire Cabinet, including mine - all because Joker Arroyo and Joe Concepcion "had shouted at each other" in her presence.

p. 84

In an interview in August 1988 with Louie Beltran, Salvador Laurel gave a completely different answer as to why he resigned. He said it was because there was no counterinsurgency program being implemented by the administration.

5:25 Louie Beltran: When you were in the Cabinet were you aware of any counterinsurgency program being implemented by the administration?

Salvador Laurel: None and that is the reason I resigned as Foreign secretary.

What are we to make of this admission in light of the book which was written 4 years later? These reasons for resigning contradict each other.

A few days later, this is in September 1987, Doy and Cory met. He finally unburdened himself in front of her.

"Whatever happened to all those promises you made, Cory? Why was the constitution abolished without even telling me? Why did you appoint me Chariman of the Presidential Blue Ribbon Commission to investigate the behest loans only to be suddenly abolished again? Why am I now being asked to submit courtesy resignation - just because Joker Arroyo and Joe Concepcion has a shouting match?

Cory looked down and gave a halting reply: "I was told... that the EDSA revolution... erased all those promises..."

I did not bother to ask who had told her so. Everybody was quiet. Doña Aurora's head was power as if in prayer. I broke the silence. "If that's the case, Cory, there is nothing more to talk about."

p. 88

Cory asked what he was going to do now? Would he join the opposition? 

"No. Not yet. I want this government to succeed. I don't want to see it fail. I've worked hard, sacrificed so much, to bring it to power. I'll wait for a year. I'll support you whenever you are right. I'll disagree with you wen you are wrong. I'll only oppose you when you insist on being wrong."

I kept my word. I waited a full year. But I could not see where she was going. The nation was adrift. Government had no direction. "Rela-thieves" and "Kamag-anaks, Inc." were on the rampage. Corruption, vindictiveness, ineptitude and hypocrisy had started to rear their ugly heads.

p. 89

It is maddening to read this. Laurel waited a full year watching the government taking note of what was happening, concluded it was getting worse all the time, and then he penned his "love letter" of August 13th, 1988. Why then does he give no specifics? Surely he had them in hand or else he could not have penned that letter. Or maybe he did not have the specifics. After all he could not even bring himself to ask Cory who told her that EDSA erased all the promises she made to Laurel. 

Without further elaboration these are merely broad and sweeping accusations. The vagueness of these accusations have been useful to those who would seek to return to the so-called golden years of the Marcos regime. They point to Laurel's complaints without the burden of proof because of the authority Salvador Laurel possessed as Vice President and an insider in the Cory Aquino administration. Why would the former Vice Preisdent lie? I am not calling him a liar. I am saying we need something more concrete than mere accusations.

While this book is an important historical document it leaves much to be desired. It is used by many Marcos revisionists to paint Cory as a devil who set out to destroy the legacy of Marcos. This is especially the case with the incident where Laurel was summoned by Marcos to Hawaii. There he was told to relay the following message to President Aquino:

“Please tell Mrs. Aquino to stop sending her relatives to me," he continued. "They are proposing  so many things. I have already established a foundation and I am turning over 90% of all my worldly possessions to the Filipino people. Enrique Zobel has all the papers. He and the Papal Nuncio, Msgr. Torpigliani, will sit in the Board to see to it that 90% of all that I have are properly distributed to our people. That is much better than what Mrs' Aquino's relatives have been proposing. I am leaving only 10% for my family."

p. 108

Salvador Laurel then goes on to relate that Cory would not see him so he could deliver the message. However she did allot an hour to meet with Tom Cruise. He calls this her greatest mistake and says she could have solved the Marcos wealth problem once and for all if she had only accepted the message. I will discuss this tantalizing episode in-depth in a future article. Suffice to say once again Laurel leaves a lot out and does not tell the whole story.

There is not much more to discuss about the book. It has a lot of shortcomings and they are not exactly made up for. Far from being a summation of the Cory government it is a personal memoir written from one man's viewpoint. There is nothing wrong with that per se but it deprives the reader of any nuance or context in many places. The text is in dire need of annotations. As for the strange title "Neither Trumpets nor Drums" we get an explanation in the last chapter.

In the tradition of heraldry, the trumpet served as the symbol of victory or the birth of a new day. Drums, on the other hand, always preceded an execution, their persistent, percussive sound signifying death or a burial, the end of something evil.

The Cory government, by remaining indifferent to the popular glamour for change, failed to herald a new ear for our country or to bury the traditional forces of cronyism, favoritism, corruption and greed.

p. 150

For as much as Salvador Laurel is critical of Cory Aquino's administration it is very important to point out that he never once whitewashes the Marcos dictatorship. He never apologizes for Marcos. He never indicates in any way that life under Marcos was much better than under Cory or that Cory was worse than Marcos. But that hasn't stopped people from twisting his words.

https://twitter.com/ilda_talk/status/1272667107570802694

Cory’s late former Vice President Doy Laurel had something to say about this. He wrote an open scathing letter to Cory outlining the deception she, her family and allies did. She betrayed him and the people. In so many words, he said Cory became worse than Marcos.

Such an analysis by one of the editors of Get Real Philippines is monumentally moronic and proof positive that she has not read this book and does not understand the letter to which she is referring. At no point in this book or in that love letter does Laurel indicate that "Cory became worse than Marcos." On pages 5-8 he gives a scathing indictment of the Marcos regime starting off by noting, "Our country was not free." Any Marcos revisionists looking to use this book for their purpose should keep that in mind.