Imelda Marcos' governance of Metro Manila: A nuanced perspective

First of a series

I AM probably the last person many people would expect to be speaking in the conference "Nuancing the History of the Marcos Era in the Philippines: Approaches, Evidences and Contestations" held Feb. 28, 2023. But despite the fact that I am known as an engaged academic, I am actually an advocate of a more nuanced and less radical approach in telling the history of the Marcos regime from when I was a student in college. I even picked Imelda Marcos as the topic of my BA and MA theses. My seemingly polemical approach was only a reaction to the historical distortions, especially pertaining to the victims of human rights violations. But as an academic, I never let my politics get ahead of my scholarship.