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Manipulating Truth to Manufacture Lies.
President Ferdinand E. Marcos held power for 21-years and lost power in four days. What happened and why is recounted in this book by Keith Dalton,
a former foreign correspondent in the Philippines for 10 years. He writes of a ruthless and repressive dictatorship – responsible for 110,000 deaths, imprisonments, torture, and ‘disappearances’ – overthrown in a People Power revolution in 1986. Through despotism, nepotism, and corruption Marcos built an empire of greed. Thirty-six years later, in 2022, his son, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. was elected president buoyed by a social media disinformation campaign that claimed his father was the Philippines best-ever president who presided over a ‘golden age’.
Untrue. Marcos was a dictator, and it was a ‘bloody age’, says Dalton. Before he reached the Philippines, Dalton travelled alone for two years through Southeast Asia, a typewriter in his backpack. In Manila, he found Marcos at the peak of his power. He stayed. Ten years later Marcos was overthrown and Dalton watched it happen.
Marcos died a dictator. But today, on social media, Marcos is a hero.
Memories of Asia, the Philippines, and President Ferdinand E. Marcos who built an empire but lost a nation.
When social media disinformation transformed the Philippines former president, Ferdinand E. Marcos from a dictator into a hero, Keith Dalton knew he had to write this book. In ‘Reinventing Marcos’ Dalton writes that social media has turned Marcos into a man he never was by rewriting history, denying facts, concocting ‘new’ truths.
Dalton was a foreign correspondent in the Philippines for 10 years – half the time Marcos was in power. He saw first-hand the political suppression, the militarization of the country, the human rights abuses, the cronyism, the corruption, and the economic plunder of the nation. And when a People Power revolution toppled Marcos in 1986, Dalton watched it happen.
As a journalist in the days before mobile phones, lap top computers, and the Internet, Dalton left Australia with a portable typewriter in his backpack and with dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent. He travelled alone for two years through Southeast Asia. He took truck-like buses, cargo ships, dodgy planes, and dilapidated trains.
In the remote jungles of Borneo he was the first white man the children of ex-headhunters had ever seen. He ventured into military controlled Burma. Finally, he reached the Philippines and stayed. For the next decade, as a freelance foreign correspondent, Dalton reported on the most tumultuous political period in modern Philippine history.
‘Reinventing Marcos’ is his account of those years. He tells the truth to preserve the truth against social media disinformation.
Reviews
"Reinventing Marcos is a passionate call to action for truth-telling and historical integrity. Dalton’s work is essential reading for those grappling with the challenges of combating disinformation and preserving the integrity of historical memory. It stands as both a memoir and a warning, urging vigilance against the seductive allure of revisionist narratives."
Joe Assi
BA, LLB, BSc (Psychology), MA, LLM, MBA (Finance)
