Only a few private schools dared to declare class suspension to mark the historical world-renowned peace and bloodless People Power Revolution of 1986 notwithstanding Presidential Proclamation Numbered 727 declaring 25 February 2025 a special working holiday. The action by the concerned private schools was to give their students, faculty and personnel a day to celebrate the victory that happened almost four decades ago in that historical highway which was used as the convenient name of the event, that is EDSA revolution.
But the place that is part of then Highway 54 and later named Epifanio De los Santos Avenue (EDSA) only served as the stage for the final salvo of the nationwide struggle against the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the same label as the title of the book written by journalist Primitivo “Tibo” Medrana Mijares. It would be recalled that Primitivo “Tibo” Medrana Mijares was the National Press Club President when he was handpicked by Ferdinand Edralin Marcos to serve as chief propagandist of the Marcos dictatorship.
News from the palace would come from Tibo Mijares as he was the closest and trusted man that could talk directly to the president even during mealtime. He would serve as news reporter of the puppet national broadsheet Daily Express under Teodoro “Doroy” F. Valencia. It took too long for Tibo Mijares to decide that he could no longer serve the whims of the dictator. He issued a statement of defection on 5 February 1975 and lived in the United States. On 17 June 1975, he was to testify before the US House International Relations subcommittee on claims of bribery, corruption and fraud against Marcos.
An attempt to dissuade him from testifying was made by Marcos who sent an emissary by the name of presidential assistant Guillermo Vinluan de Vega who offered fifty thousand US dollars (US $50,000.00) as bribe for him not to testify. Later, another emissary by the name of Trinidad Alconel, the Philippine Consul General, repeated the offer and raid the amount to one hundred thousand US dollars (US $100,000.00). Both offers were rejected and a photocopy of the check was taken by Mijares and printed in his book The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.
Mijares testified before the US congress International Relations committee on bribery, corruption, fraud and human rights violation under the Marcos dictatorship. His book was published and in 1977 he accepted an invitation to return to the Philippines. He was last seen boarding a flight home with a known Marcos intelligence and was never heard disembarking at his flight destination.
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