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I will bet anything that this question did not come up in the second Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library.

Should Harvard keep a $2 million gift to fund its first-ever Tagalog language course from the family of Imelda Marcos? Is it clean money? Or just clean enough? Was it among the cache of funds stolen from the Philippine coffers under martial law? Would that make it worse than Sackler money, which gave us Valium and, more recently, opioids like OxyContin?

OK, maybe it’s not that bad. It’s just money that corrupted Philippine democracy, not the physical well-being of its people.

And that brings me to Rene Cruz.

I have known Cruz since 1981, when I first met his wife, the journalist Elaine Elinson. She introduced me to him as the Filipino editor and journalist behind Katipunan, an “underground” newspaper published in the U.S. dedicated to freedom-loving Filipinos fighting for the liberation of their country.

At the time, the enemy was the Marcos dictatorship. The term “Katipunan” literally means “association” in Tagalog. It was borrowed from Andres Bonifacio, who started a secret society by the same name to fight for freedom from Spain, then the U.S. in 1898.The group split up into factions. Most Americans hear about the faction led by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, who executed Bonifacio. But while Aguinaldo formed the first democratic republic in Asia, he also led its fall to the U.S. in the Philippine American War and the subsequent colonization of the Philippines.

The ideological dream died with Aguinaldo, but it has continued among Filipino writers and intellectuals with Bonifacio.

Rene Cruz is a Bonifacio dude.

For the last 40 years, I have been privileged to work with him as my editor in a variety of ethnic publications. The very first “Amok” column was a weekly in the original Filipinas Magazine. I worked with him on New California Media/Pacific News Service. And then for years, he has been my editor at the Inquirer.net, the diaspora website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

But no longer.

Cruz is as principled as it comes. When he published an un-bylined piece on how Imelda Marcos’ nephew, the current Philippine House Speaker Martin Romualdez, funded Harvard’s new Tagalog course with a $2 million gift, the piece was ordered taken down by the website’s principals, who happen to be related to Imelda Marcos’ family.

Too unflattering to the Marcoses? To Romualdez? To Harvard?

For Cruz, it all came at the cost of the truth and, for a journalist, that was untenable. Cruz’s last day with the organization is this week.

But what does it say about the Inquirer.net? That you won’t be able to turn to it for any honest critical coverage? That anything that puts the Marcos clan in a bad light will be censored?

I have done plenty of critical, fact-based columns about the Marcoses in the Inquirer and have yet to experience censorship.

Now, after suppressing the Harvard story, the pub will have to work hard to prove it doesn’t protect its own favorite brand of oligarch.

Now what should Harvard do with the money? That's easy. Ask the donor to be transparent on the origins of the money. If not, the money should be returned.

In 2023, Harvard has an endorsement in excess of $50 billion. The school doesn't need the controversy of whether laundered Filipino money is funding something long overdue, the teaching of Tagalog, the native tongue of more than 4 million people in America.

Of course, where else but in the Inquirer.net and other Philippines media outlets would you have heard a fair but critical report about a $2 million donation from the Philippines paying for the first Tagalog course ever at Harvard?

It’s the power of the ethnic media in a free society. But when editorial control veers into censorship, you get a first-hand taste of how martial law worked under the dictatorial Marcoses, when the freedoms you thought you had are suddenly lost.

THE ETHNIC MEDIA AND THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS

I will be at the San Francisco Main Public Library’s Koret Auditorium at 2pm this Sunday, emceeing the 44th American Book Awards. Founded by the Before Columbus Foundation, the awards are designed to assure that the voices you hear in American letters reflect the natural diversity of this great nation.

This year, beyond fighting for diversity, we are also fighting against all forms of censorship and book banning. Even in these modern times, we continue to fight for free speech, a fundamental freedom of our democracy.

In 2000, I was lucky to have been honored with the award for my book, “Amok: Essays from an Asian American Perspective.” It was simply a compilation of my columns, but looking back, there was real value. What was our community thinking about? What were our opinions on the matters of the day when people thought we were silent?

Asian Week, at one time the largest circulating news weekly on Asian America in English, began publishing my columns in 1995. The columns were published on the AALDEF website starting in 2010 after Asian Week went dark.Now all the previous columns from 1995 to 2010 are available for free on the Asian Week Data Base project. By virtue of AI, the project is up and running. Go to www.asianweek.com to access the database.

This week, I am honored to emcee the ceremony that will include ABA Lifetime Achievement Honoree, Maxine Hong Kingston. I always loved her lyrical, fantastical work in “The Woman Warrior.” More recently, I listened to her “I Love a Broad Margin to My Life.” I will always remember the blurb she wrote for my book: “I turn to the Amok column first thing in Asian Week. Emil always has a fresh and insightful point of view.”

A few generous sentences from a master that reminded me to value my words.

Now this week, I will have the chance to honor hers.

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NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my AAPI micro-talk show. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.