
‘Book Haul’ by Cecil Robin Singalaoa, watercolor on cotton rag paper, 2020, 4×6 inches
Two important books, A Death Foretold: The Ninoy Aquino Assassination Remembered, and SERVE, were launched within weeks of one another. If anything, these public events underscore that as far as the writers and contributors are concerned, they haven’t forgotten that dark age in Philippine history—the Marcos dictatorship years.
Those of us who lived through and survived the authoritarian years owe it to the next generation to tell our stories of how it was: the violation of human rights, the suppression of press freedom, the rampant corruption, the extravagance signified by Imelda R. Marcos’ cabinets of shoes (and matching bags, we suppose), the blatant lies like the dictator’s depiction of himself as a World War II hero, etc.
Fictionists like Danton Remoto, Gina Apostol, Butch Dalisay, among others, have spun tales about the period, but there’s nothing like non-fiction to bring back the rawness of those experiences.
A Death Foretold, put together admirably and conscientiously by the editorial team of Sarge Lacuesta, An Mercado-Alcantara, Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta, Alfred Yuson, Mara Cepeda and Susan S. Lara, seeks out known and unknown people to ask them these vital questions:
Where were you on Aug. 21, 1983 when former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was shot and killed at the Manila International Airport?

Ninoy and journalist friend Kiyoshi Wakamiya aboard the China Airlines plane on Aug. 21, 1983, bound for Manila
How and when did you first hear of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination?
What was your initial reaction?
Did the incident impact you in another or larger way subsequently?
Answers and accounts from 153 people came in. They included National Artists, social scientists, journalists, poets, novelists, non-government organization workers, painters, relatives of the deceased Ninoy like daughter Ballsy Aquino Cruz, nuns, teachers, showbiz personalities and so on. The range of citizens who cooperated with the editors shows how deeply the assassination affected them even 40 years after the unsolved murder in broad daylight happened. It is a collective trauma, at the very least.

Cory and Ninoy at their 25th wedding anniversary for which he had a 36-hour pass from the military.
Among the walking wounded is Ninoy’s cousin Gil Yuzon, a former advertising agency executive, who always knew Ninoy “was destined for greatness. Among us younger ones, idol naming siya. Even as a teenager, we thought this guy was going to be either the president or a great hero—or both.”

Cory and daughters helping Ninoy pack for his return to Manila
Freelance writer-torch singer Celina Cristobal initially distrusted Ninoy “because he talked too fast,” even if her father, Adrian, said that he could become the next President. Adrian Cristobal was preparing to be in Ninoy’s campaign team for the 1973 presidential elections, but we know that martial law was declared in ’72, thus negating free polls and leaving Marcos to rule with an iron fist until 1986 when the People Power Revolt kicked him and his family out of the country.

Mug shot of Judy Taguiwalo taken during her detention in 1973-74. She was imprisoned twice during Martial Law.
The collection of memories is divided into 10 chapters: Politico, Prisoner, Exile, Balikbayan, Arrival, Aftershock, Aftermath, Martyr, Facts, Ignite and Insights. The layout is such that the reader, especially the millennial reader, is guided with a timeline of events at the bottom of the page.
In his introduction, Prof. Jose Maria K. Tirol of Ateneo University (a breath of fresh air for it is a millennial writing) states that the purpose of the book “is not to solve one of Philippine history’s greatest mysteries, nor to court political controversy…By collecting memories in the form of testimonials, whether sympathetic or not to the late senator and the cause he represented, at the end of the day, Ninoy’s life is worth remembering. And so long as even one Filipino chooses to remember, Ninoy’s death will not have been in vain.”
Copies of A Death Foretold may be ordered through this link:
SERVE the People, the Economy, Government, Children, Environment, Press Freedom, Academe, a Supreme Being, Women, the Country, the book’s complete title, gathers the “fearless college editors from 1969 to 1972” in this Ateneo de Manila University Press title. They are 19 in all, with Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon as editor.
The anthology is enhanced by four photo folios that show the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) editors and staffers in their youth and in their present-day appearances. There is also a folio of iconic Martial Law artworks with reproductions of the stalwarts of social realism, like Pablo Baens Santos, Antipas Delotavo, Orly Castillo, Leonilo Doloricon, Jose Tence Ruiz, Edgar Talusan Fernandez, BenCab, Danilo Dalena.
SERVE is sequel to another CEGP book, Not on Our Watch: Martial Law Really Happened. We Were There, also edited by Maglipon.
As Dalisay wrote in his SERVEprologue, “Our memories of martial law may not be those of most Filipinos who lived through it, especially those who only saw its external sparkle—the clean streets, new roads, beauty pageants, and Potemkin palaces that the regime provided. These Filipinos did not know that even when they kept quiet and supported the Marcoses, they were being stolen from, for a total of up to US$10 billion by some estimates. By the end of 2020, the Philippine government had recovered PHP174 billion in Marcos ill-gotten wealth, with PHP126 billion more of real estate and personal properties under litigation.”

17–year-old Butch Dalisay as Philippine Collegian staffer (left) and as UP official 50 years later
Dalisay wrote movingly in his Philippine Star column recently by way of a grace note to the book: “But like those shaken passengers who stagger away from a crashed plane, leaving the uncounted dead behind, I’m sure that we felt driven by survivor’s guilt to make the most meaning of our gifted years, to do well and to do good, and to serve our people in any way we could.
Little is known, chiefly because it has gone unpublished, about the case of Chi Rho staffer and CEGP member Sonia Dipasupil, the first case of campus press freedom during Martial Law. She filed a case against Maryknoll College. Campus press freedom was tested (she won) and this case was recorded in the Supreme Court Reports Annotated, a collection of SC rulings used as reference by lawyers and law students for research or litigation. Sonia’s case was successfully defended by the Free Legal Ai Assistance under former Sen. Jose Diokno. The school settled by apologizing publicly, although Sonia wasn’t allowed to graduate. As part of her settlement, Maryknoll sent her to the law school of her choice—the University of the Philippines College of Law.
To the following authors, we offer a fond and grateful salute for bearing witness to a painful past and living to tell the tale in words and pictures: Alexander Aquino, Elso U. Cabangon, Jones T. Campos, Sonny Coloma, Bob Corrales, Dalisay, Manuel M. Dayrit, Jaime A. Florcruz, Senen D. Glorioso, Eduardo T. Gonzalez, Diwa C. Guinigundo, Sol Juvida, Derly Magcalen, Maglipon, Thelma Sioson, Chito Sta. Romana, Judy M. Taguiwalo, Angie Tocong and Rey Vea.

Jo-Ann Maglipon, in the ’80s, with a child in the Ata village in Mindanao, where, the SERVE caption said, the ‘huts were torched in a suspected landgrab attempt.’ (Photo published in SERVE)
SERVE is available at Fully Booked.