Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Books
The Philippines hasn't been as well documented in fiction or non-fiction as
many of its Asian neighbours. There are, however, a number of good
investigative accounts of two subjects - American involvement in the
Philippines and the excesses of the Marcoses. Some of the topics reviewed
below are published in the Philippines, and are unlikely to be on sale in
bookshops outside the country; you should have more luck online.
HISTORY AND POLITICS
Alan Berlow
Dead Season: A Story of Murder and Revenge
.
This brilliantly atmospheric work is the story of three murders
that took place in the 1970s on Negros, against the backdrop
of communist guerrilla activity and appeals for land reform.
It's impossible to read without feeling intense despair for a
country where humble, peaceful people have often become
pawns in a game of power and money played out around
them. Cory Aquino comes out of it badly - the Church asked
her to investigate the murders but she refused, fearful that
this might entail treading on too many toes.
Raymond Bonner
Waltzing with a Dictator
. Former
New
York Times
correspondent Bonner reports on the complex
twenty-year US relationship with the Marcos regime and
how Washington kept Marcos in power long after his sell-by
date: US bases in the country needed a patron and Marcos
was the right man. Marcos cleverly played up the threat of a
communist insurgency in the Philippines, making it seem to
Washington that he was their only hope of stability.
Luis Francia
History of the Philippines: From Indios Bravos
to Filipinos
. A welcome history of the archipelago offering the
perfect introduction to the country and plenty of new insights
about the Spanish and American periods in particular.
★
a book about America, not about the Philippines. The
Philippines is the landscape, but the story is of America
going abroad for the first time in its history at the turn of
the last century. The topic examines how the US sought to
remake the Philippines as a clone of itself, an experiment
marked from the outset by blundering, ignorance and
mutual misunderstanding.
Eric Morris
Corregidor
. Intimate account of the defence
of the island fortress, based on interviews with more
than forty Filipinos and Americans who battled hunger,
dysentery and malaria in the run-up to the critical battle
with Japanese forces. As the topic explains, the poorly
equipped Allied troops, abandoned by General MacArthur
and almost forgotten by military strategists in Washington,
had little chance of winning, though against all the odds
Corregidor held out for six months.
Ambeth Ocampo
Rizal without the Overcoat
(Anvil). This
collection of essays and musings (originally a column in
the
Philippine Daily Globe
) offers entertaining and easily
digested insights into the great Filipino hero. It's become
almost as common in schools as Rizal's
Noli
(see p.459).
Beth Day Romulo
Inside the Palace: The Rise and Fall
of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
. Beth Day Romulo, wife of
Ferdinand Marcos's foreign minister Carlos Romulo, was
among those who enjoyed the privileges of being a
Malacañang insider, something she feels the need to
excuse and justify on almost every page. Her book borders
on being a Marcos hagiography - she clearly didn't want
to upset her old friend Imelda too much - and is gossipy
more than investigative, but does nevertheless offer some
insight into Imelda's lavish and frivolous lifestyle, and the
disintegration of the regime.
William Henry Scott
Barangay: Sixteenth-Century
Philippine Culture and Society
. This lucid account of life in
the Philippines during the century the Spanish arrived is
the best there is of the period. The author's love for the
Philippines and his deep knowledge of its customs are
reflected in this scholarly but accessible investigation into
Hispanic-era society, the country's elite, its tribes and their
customs - everything from that most quotidian of rituals,
taking a bath, to the once common practice of penis piercing.
James Hamilton-Paterson
America's Boy: The Rise
and Fall of Ferdinand Marcos and Other Misadventures of
US Colonialism in the Philippines
. A controversial narrative
history of the US-supported dictatorship that came to
define the Philippines. The author makes the very plausible
claim that the Marcoses were merely the latest in a long
line of corrupt Filipino leaders in a country which had
historically been ruled by oligarchies, and gathers first-
hand information from senators, cronies, rivals and Marcos
family members, including Imelda.
★
James D. Hornfischer
The Last Stand of the Tin Can
Sailors
. Gripping and in parts harrowing narrative of the battle
between the Americans and Japanese off Samar in October
1944, and the larger battle of Leyte Gulf that followed, the
beginning of the American liberation of the Philippines.
Hornfischer also intelligently provides a Japanese perspective
to the battle. Well written and easy to read.
★
Stanley Karnow
In Our Image: America's Empire in the
Philippines
. This Pulitzer Prize-winning effort is really
