LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte – An Ilocano writer based in Hawaii launched his book titled “Dagiti Maudi nga Aldaw (The Last Days) ni Ferdinand E. Marcos" at the Tabacalera Auditorium here on Saturday, Feb. 25, coinciding with the 37th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.
Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew Marcos Manotoc, a grandson of Marcos Sr., graced the launching as guest of honor and speaker.
Manotoc thanked Engr. Ricarte “Ric” A. Agnes, book author and a multi-awarded writer from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte who is now based in Honolulu for coming up with the book that reminisces the rich memoirs of his late grandfather.
Agnes said that he was inspired to write the book with permission from retired Col. Arturo Aruiza, Marcos Sr.’s aide-de-camp. Aruiza was also Marcos Sr.’s confidant for 21 years until the former Chief Executive died in Honolulu in 1989.
“Aside from Col. Aruiza’s permission for me to cull from his memoirs on the book he wrote, ‘Ferdinand E. Marcos, Malacañang to Makiki,’ I have also been a witness to certain events that have greatly inspired me to put the former President’s last days into a book so that more people would know, especially the young, the true story of what exactly had happened before he left Malacanang and during his confinement in Hawaii,” said Agnes.
Agnes said that he also discussed with Aruiza the possibility of writing excerpts of his book in the Ilocano dialect for publication in Bannawag, a well-known Ilokano magazine circulating in the Philippines and abroad, particularly in Hawaii, published by the Manila Bulletin.
Upon completion of his manuscript of the Ilocano version of the excerpts of Aruiza’s book with his own accounts on the last days of Marcos Sr. in Hawaii, it was published in a series in the Bannawag.
“It is very timely that we launch this book coinciding with the celebration of the People's Power anniversary as we bring the accurate information that happened to FEM and his family while they were in Hawaii,” he said.
According to Agnes, his book was also translated into Filipino with the help of experts from the Department of Education (DepEd).
He aims to donate copies of his book to different schools in Ilocos Norte after the launching.
Before migrating to Hawaii two months after the bloodless uprising in April 1986, Agnes, a licensed civil and geodetic engineer, served in key positions in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the then Department of Public Works and National Highways.
Agnes won first prize in the Ilocano short story category in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1998 and 1999. He is also a recipient of the Pedro Bucaneg Award, the highest and exclusive honor accorded to Ilocano literary achievers.
Former Sarrat, Ilocos Norte Mayor Alberto G. Balintona said the book reveals the real chronology of the events that surrounded the sudden departure of Marcos Sr. from Malacanang and how he fared in Hawaii.