24/02/2022
( PROJECT VINTA )
On February 20, 1975, Primitivo Mijares, former president of the National Press Club and former chairman of the Media Advisory Council, defected from the Marcos regime. A year later, he published his book, "The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos," an exposé on the Marcos presidency.
Mijares was a campus journalist during his high school days. In 1950, he became the youngest editor of Baguio's biggest newspaper then, the Baguio Midland Courier. The following year, he became a full-fledged reporter for the Manila Chronicle. He developed a close relationship with President Marcos when he covered the president's activities for the said newspaper. He soon became Marcos' chief propagandist, writing articles aimed to convince Filipinos that martial law was necessary to reform the society and to fight against the communist insurgency. He even wrote a press release about the "ambush" of Juan Ponce Enrile, Defense Secretary of the Marcos administration, before the actual event happened. The ambush pushed Marcos to declare Martial Law.
When the Philippines Daily Express reopened after the declaration of Martial Law, Marcos selected Mijares as the newspaper's presidential reporter. He ran for the position of president of the National Press Club (NPC) and won unopposed. As president of the NPC, he automatically became the chairman of the Media Advisory Council. He was paid well for his services, and his family lived the good life.
Soon enough, Mijares began seeing the dark side of the Marcos regime. In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal published on July 5, 1975, he claimed, "Over a series of months, I got a series of instructions to allow his cronies to take over certain television and newspaper establishments... The previous owners have not been paid one single centavo of compensation... I felt guilty allowing all Marcos' friends to take over for nothing." He also claimed that Marcos ordered him to investigate Arnold Zeitlin, an American journalist, on the charge of violation of ethics of journalism, but that the charge had no basis. Marcos singled out Zeitlin because the latter was writing articles that were uncomplimentary to him and his regime. An outcry from the American press forced Marcos to back down.
In September 1974, Mijares was sent to the United States to set up a meeting between Imelda Marcos and the Philippine refugees in the US. At the last second, Mrs. Marcos backed out. Feeling used by the Marcos couple, he decided not to return to the Philippines. On June 17, 1975, he appeared before a US House International Relations subcommittee to testify claims of bribery, corruption and fraud against Marcos and his administration. He also claimed that on the night prior to his testimony, Marcos asked him not to continue with it. Cabinet Secretary Guillermo De Vega then offered him $50,000 as a bribe. The next day, Philippine Consul General Trinidad Alconel informed Mijares that the bribe had been increased to $100,000. Mijares rejected the bribe.
In 1976, he published his book, "The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos," which exposed the excesses of the Marcos dictatorship. The book was banned in the Philippines while Marcos was still in power.
In January 1977, Mijares was last seen boarding a flight from Guam to the Philippines. After that, he was never seen or heard from again. In the same year, his youngest son, Luis Manuel, was kidnapped, tortured and killed. The 16-year old's mangled body was found two weeks after his abduction.
