Once upon a time in Manila: managing Marcos and martial rule through humour

Forbes, Amy

Abstract

When Philippine. President Ferdinand. Marcos declared. Martial Law in 1972, press freedom became the first casualty. Filipinos woke up to silence and fear as television and radio stations were raided and then padlocked, and newspaper printing presses ground to a halt as so-called 'enemies of the state' were 'invited' for questioning in what became known as the ABC of military camps - Aguinaldo, Bonifacio and Crame. Marcos was specially fearful of the press at the time and ordered the arrest of journalists who he charged with conspiring with the "Left." In the midst of censorship and late night arrests of journalists, one female journalist appeared to get away with criticising and making fun of Marcos, his wife, Imelda, their cronies and even the very military who would occasionally 'invite' her for questioning if Marcos found her columns overstepping the false freedom of the press he claimed to have restored following pressure from the U.S. Government in the 80s. Veteran journalist Ninez Cacho-Olivares convinced then Daily Bulletin Publisher, Hans Menzi that she could write about the 'king with the avaricious wife' and expose him even as he is already donning the emperor's new clothes, and she, her endless pairs of shoes. Using excerpts from her actual writings and interspersed with her personal recollections and musings, Olivares explains an unwritten code between. Marcos and the female journalists of her time that she says is still observed by succeeding Philippine presidents and that has enabled her to continue her over fifty years of political journalism in a country that once boasted of being the 'freest in Asia'.

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Pleasures of the Prose: journalism and humour

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978-1-84549-662-3

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Abramis Academic Publishing

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Bury St Edmunds, UK

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