May 6, 2025, 6:04 am
It is rare for an international correspondent to re-argue the truth of stories filed decades ago. But when history is twisted to restore the reputation of a deposed dictator, an angry correspondent can return to relive the long-ago fight. That is the battle Keith Dalton wages in Reinventing Marcos: From Dictator to Hero, cramming two stories into one — his life as a foreign correspondent and his reporting on former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos was a politician who became a dictator and a kleptocrat, ruling for two decades until he was driven out of Manila by the People Power revolution of February 1986. History’s thumbs-down for Marcos seemed settled when he died in exile in 1989.
But Ferdinand’s widow, Imelda, and son, Bongbong, spent years rinsing and remaking the Marcos legend, and their efforts were crowned when Bongbong was elected president in 2022. The family and its followers proclaim that Ferdinand was the nation’s best-ever president who gave the Philippines a "golden age."
Content Creator – Australian Institute of International Affairs
