‘The big lie of the Marcoses …’ For Filipino novelist Miguel Syjuco, reality is uncomfortably close to his satire about a Philippines presidential election

I Was the President’s Mistress!! by Miguel Syjuco, pub. Farrar, Straus and Giroux “We’ve had the erosion of democratic checks and balances, of freedom of the press … deported foreigners critical of [the] administration, jailed opposition candidates. All of that.” Sound familiar? “So, six years later, we are ever more susceptible to disinformation and more disempowered than ever,” continues Filipino novelist Miguel Syjuco in a searing assessment of his homeland under outgoing president Rodrigo…

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