I don`t exactly know why, but Facebook and other social media platforms are lately publishing reminiscences about Primitivo ``Tibo`` Mijares, once the closest media person to President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his senior PR man and chief print media censor during Martial Law that started in September, 1972.
He was a journalist-lawyer married to RTC Judge Priscilla Mijares and they had 4 children.
For reasons unknown to the public but had for some time been the talk of the town [in whispers, of course, since it was Martial Law then) among newsmen of that era—which included this writer—Tibo Mijares became disgusted with Marcos, and actively joined the opposition to the Marcos regime based in the United States [called Steak Commandos) in 1974.
As Marcos` chief propagandist, Mijares headed the Media Advisory Council [MAC) which hired newsmen-members of the National Press Club as field censors. Tibo was NPC president and reporter and columnist of the Benedicto-owned The Daily Express. The MAC approved all materials, layouts, page proofs, photos, etc. of newspapers, magazines, and comic books or``komiks`` before these were printed, sifting through them with a fine-tooth comb, so to speak, making sure that no anti-Marcos material got through.
As a young writer then (only 20 years old), I was employed in the MAC as approver of komiks and entertainment magazines of Mars Ravelo, Liwayway, Roces publications, Graphic Arts Service, etc. , until the council was dissolved as Tibo and Marcos had a falling out.
Tibo left Manila on Oct. 23, 1974 and issued a defection statement from the US on Feb. 5, 1975.
Mijares testified before the US House international relations subcommittee on international organizations and movements led by Rep. Donald Fraser on June 17, 1975. He exposed the high-level corruption, bribery, torture and human rights violations of the Marcos regime, giving the American people a glimpse of this vassal and former colony.
Wikipedia said, and I am inclined to agree, that on the night before Tibo`s testimony, Marcos and Presidential Assistant Guillermo ``Gimo`` De Vega called him, requested that he reconsider, and first offered a bribe of $50,000 and later raised it to $100,000 but Tibo turned it down.
Mijares wrote the book ``The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos`` wherein he perorated in detail all the evil and horrendous things he knew about the dictatorship, and how the Filipino people were robbed and raped by the regime`s minions. Deeply hurt, the Marcos couple considered Tibo one of their principal political enemies.
In an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal, Mijares states that he ``felt guilty allowing Marcos` friends to take over for nothing.`` This comment reminded me of another ML rumor that goes like this: Tibo worked for the Lopezes in the defunct Manila Chronicle, and was close to his former bosses. He allegedly brokered the ``sale`` of Lopez-owned Manila Electric Co. [Meralco) to Marcos and his cronies, with the understanding that he would earn a fat commission. When the sale was completed, Tibo was not paid despite repeated pleadings.
On Jan. 23, 1977, Tibo was seen boarding a flight from Guam to Manila with General Fabian Ver and a nephew of Justice Querube Makalintal. He disappeared without a trace. Months later, his youngest son Luis Manuel ``Boyet`` Mijares was kidnapped, brutally tortured and killed, his body found in a grassy field.
For the Marcos regime, Tibo and Boyet became uncomfortable footnotes in recent history.
Gimo De Vega
Dr. Guillermo de Vega was Ferdinand Marcos` presidential assistant and chief of the Board of Censors with supervisory mandate over movies and theaters. A literary writer and academician, Gimo de Vega was a friend of Primitivo Mijares and reportedly the one who introduced Tibo to Marcos.
Must be the reason why Gimo helped the President to convince Tibo not to testify in the US, an allegedly bribery effort that failed.
On Oct. 27, 1975, a Monday, De Vega was in his office in Malacañang, Mabini Hall to be exact, located near Gate 4 of the Palace. He was shot and killed by a lone gunman, identified as Romeo Arceo (not the entertainment editor of the Evening Express). Arceo was arrested and imprisoned.
Motive of the murder was fuzzy even up to this day. Some said it was because of a beauty pageant where both Gimo and Romy Arceo had some dealings, but this was just loose talk.
Perhaps I am the only writer to point out that Gimo`s assassination came exactly 132 days afterhe failed to convince Tibo not to testify in the US.
The rumor was that De Vega was killed because of this failure to shepherd Mijares, the lawyer-newsman being his ``bata,`` and bring him back to the regime`s fold.
Looking back, it is hard to wrap one`s head around the fact that a lone gunman was able to pass martial law-style security in the Palace, hide a gun, and shoot the President`s top adviser.
Actually, I would have personally witnessed this shooting myself or died with Gimo, had I not been late for a writing deadline. It`s because a week or so before he died, De Vega called a meeting of all movie scriptwriters and expressed his concern for our work, our profession; what embarrassing low fees we were paid, or if movie producers were paying us at all.
Our group of scriptwriters aired numerous gripes and complaints, and he promised to help. First, Gimo said henceforth, no scriptwriter would be paid lower than P7,500 per script. He enforced this on the producers. And if we have collection problems with producers, we could just approach him in the Palace.
That Monday, I was on my way to Malacañang to complain that producer Virginia Aristorenas did not pay the balance for my work in the movie ``Lady Cop.`` I cannot remember now what happened—probably a pressing script deadline—why I failed to meet Gimo that day, the chief Marcos censor and legal brains, felled by a bullet right in the seat of Martial Law power, joining hundreds of other Filipinos killed.
Uncanny feeling
Many Filipinos get the creepy feeling of Deja Vu, that we`ve been here before, when soldiers and police of current President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. harass the rural masses of Capas, Tarlac in preparation for shooing them away to make way for the Pax Silica AI hub.
This hamletting, this militarization and other human rights excesses, media and financial control, along with massive graft and corruption that exceeded what his father had stolen in the 1970s and 1980s—are characteristics of a police state that could horrify even master thief Zaldy Co from even thinking of coming back.
Marcos Sr. ruled by fear and an iron hand, jailed political rivals with his military killing some. His junior, the President, seems like following the same political gameplan of bending the law and lining some pockets. It is the fate of this god-forsaken nation to relive its lowlife existence of 50 years ago, and many are asking how long can the masses hold.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews #CoverStory