The meme 9/11 is universally associated with the 2001 terrorist attack that brought the World Trade Center in New York crashing down. To “martial law babies” like me, 9/11 is the birthday of Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. From 1966 to 1985, Marcos celebrated his birthdays in Malacañang; the public side of these events was recorded in the news, the private side in his diaries.
On Sept. 9, 1970, Philippine National Bank employees gave notice of strike. Marcos immediately referred the matter to the Court of Industrial Relations resentfully noting in his diary:
“It is a little painful that they strike effective on my birthday, Sept. 11th. And I have spoiled them. They receive one of the highest scales of salaries and fringe benefits in the government. But this is symbolic of the times.”
Turning 53 at midnight on Sept. 11, 1970, was memorable because the family was not complete. Mrs. Marcos and Bongbong were in London leaving the president with his daughters. Imee, the elder sister, gifted him with two books: “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran. This bundle came with, “an affectionate touching letter in the smallest hand I have seen in many a year.” Irene presented him with a painting of recent floods and a note that read: “Dear Daddy, I couldn’t give you anything but this cheap jacket and a painting. But anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY—Irene.”
Later in the day, he was beset with a stream of wellwishers and unusual fiesta fare that upset his stomach. During the birthday mass, the Jesuit Fr. James Donelan delivered a homily on Christ and Prometheus that inspired deep personal reflection:
“Prometheus, one of the gods of Greek mythology took pity upon man huddled in caves against the cold and stole fire from Mount Olympus, guarded by Jupiter who did not wish to give fire to man because man would acquire the power of the gods. Thus, fire that could warm man and cook his food, melt the metals from the earth, and thus make steel arrowheads, printing presses, or guns, was brought to the world. But Jupiter in anger punished Prometheus for stealing the fire.
“Another god came to this earth and brought another kind of fire—spiritual fire, unlike the physical fire of Prometheus. And this other God was Jesus Christ. He did not steal the fire he brought for his Father had given it to him for man. But the petty gods that man had become were envious and like Prometheus punished him. They taunted him, spat on him, and spread-eagled him on a cross on top of another lonely mountain we know as Calvary. Like Prometheus, he died for his service to man. But the fire he brought still burns in our hearts.
“A President must be both Prometheus, to bring the physical of comfort and progress, and a Christ to bring spiritual fire in our hearts. Every man must be Christ. But a president more so. And so we have come to pray for strength, courage, and wisdom as well as love for him that he may bring fire into our world.
“And we can say, ‘He brought forth fire into the world and the fire still burns within us.’”
Did this kind of spiritual reflection inspire the decision to declare martial law in 1972? In 1971, Father Donelan was again a presider and homilist at a birthday mass that brought Marcos to a new level:
“I could feel I was in communication with my Creator. The sermon on being alone was apropos. And as I prayed I felt tears springing to my eyes from the joy of communication. I was on the verge I believe, of one of those mystic seizures where the spirit lifts up from the body. So I prayed for wisdom, strength, and patience so that I may make the right decisions.”
Heady from the publication of his first book, “Today’s Revolution: Democracy,” Marcos wrote out an outline for the second:
“I start to write a second book on my birthday. The momentum pushes me forward. And just like the first this is a book that begs, nay, demands to be written.
“It is the book of the third world, mostly Asia, Africa, and Latin America about which Western writers pontificate and Western statesmen speculate so easily. And the growing pomposity of media in their sanctimonious self-righteousness; their inclination to rewrite history (contemporary history) with the looking glass of the modern age—TV as well as the subjectivity, too, of the modern newspapermen who manipulate news. The dilemma of the developing states and their ambivalence: they complete freedom but they unconsciously depend upon the big states and former colonizers for both security and development …”
Marcos foresaw a runaway bestseller because “Even those who have not read a book in the last 10 years insist on having my book and discussing it. So at least this is one achievement of the book.“ He also foresaw a cultural revival: “I will still make it fashionable to think and write. Intellectualism will be the fad.” So much for his pre-martial law birthday wishes.
Ambeth is a Public Historian whose research covers 19th century Philippines: its art, culture, and the people who figure in the birth of the nation. Professor and former Chair, Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University, he writes a widely-read editorial page column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and has published over 30 books—the most recent being: Martial Law: Looking Back 15 (Anvil, 2021) and Yaman: History and Heritage in Philippine Money (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 2021).
