(Part One)
“What Diosdado Macapagal started as a new phenomenon in 1962 turned into a ‘balimbing’ culture, the new normal in Philippine politics”
IN 1961, Liberal Party’s Diosdado P. Macapagal became president after defeating a re-electionist Nacionalista Party Carlos P. Garcia, at a time when we had a functional two-party system which did not prohibit independents or third parties to field presidential candidates.
But the two-party system was deeply rooted in the prevailing political praxis since Manuel A. Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, Jose Avelino and Jose Atienza founded the Liberal Party as a splinter of the Grand Old Party of Manuel Luis Quezon and Sergio Osmena.
From then until Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared martial law in September 1972, and except for certain well-known personalities like Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tanada, Raul Manglapus and Manuel Manahan, politicians were either Nacionalistas or Liberals.
In 1953, when an ailing President Quirino of the Liberal Party sought re-election, a single-term LP congressman from Zambales whom Quirino named defense secretary, Ramon Magsaysay, was drafted by the Nacionalistas through wartime president Jose P. Laurel to run against his political patron.
Magsaysay won and carried many NPs to victory, but the LPs held their ground as opposition party.
Then in 1962, faced with a Congress dominated by the Nacionalistas, President Macapagal engineered the first mass turncoatism in our short political history by unseating Speaker Jose B. Laurel Jr. and replacing him with Capiz congressman Cornelio T. Villareal.
But in 1965, Pepito Laurel and the Nacionalistas turned the tables against Macapagal by getting Senate President Ferdinand Marcos to turn his LP coat to become a Nacionalista candidate against a re-electionist Macapagal.
When Marcos proclaimed martial law in 1972, both parties went into limbo, until Marcos gave birth to his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan or KBL where most NP and LP politicians folded in.
The non-KBL remnants were later formed by Doy Laurel, Eva-Estrada Kalaw, Rene Espina and others into the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) to become the above-ground opposition to the authoritarian regime and his KBL machinery.
In 1984, months after the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., 60 UNIDO candidates won in the 180-member Batasang Pambansa, the unicameral parliament Marcos formed ostensibly to gradually return to democratic order.
This signal victory carried on when Cory Aquino and Doy Laurel ran under the UNIDO standard in the snap elections of 1986, where Comelec and the Batasan proclaimed FM Sr. and his running-mate Arturo Tolentino, but was hijacked by Edsa Uno two weeks later.
Yet in 1988, Laurel and the UNIDO broke off from Cory Aquino, thus giving birth to the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), formed principally by Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Cory’s younger brother.
Mass turncoatism once again reared its head when Laurel’s UNIDO was deserted by politicians to join the LDP, the new monolithic party.
When LDP fielded Speaker Ramon V. Mitra Jr.in 1992, Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos formed Lakas with just seven congressmen in his fold.
This was minimally reinforced by the NUCD of Raul Manglapus to become Lakas-NUCD.
Despite a huge machinery and ample resources, Mitra was trounced by Ramos, though his win was challenged by a popular Miriam Defensor Santiago.
But Senate President Eduardo Angara nimbly co-habited the LDP with Lakas, which though reduced in numbers, remained a viable party.
In 1998, LDP and NPC of defeated 1992 candidate Danding Cojuangco merged with the small Partido ng Masang Pilipino of VP Joseph Estrada to form LAMMP.
Estrada won, and again there was a massive exodus from Lakas and other fledgling parties into his LAMMP. But Estrada’s term was cut short by Edsa Dos, and his Lakas VP Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was proclaimed president through a controversial Supreme Court decision.
Again, everybody and his mother moved to Lakas-NUCD-Kampi (GMA’s newly-formed vehicle when she ran in 1998).
A sub-culture of the turncoatism phenomenon was the emergence of oligarch-funded parties which concentrated on congressional and local candidacies, like NPC and NUP.
Meanwhile, an ailing Doy Laurel gave the NP leadership to then Senate President Manuel B. Villar while Mar Roxas husbanded the LP, both giving life to the old pre-martial law parties.
They were to have a face-off as NP and LP presidential candidates in 2010, until Cory Aquino’s death snatched the banner from Roxas and into Noynoy Aquino.
After Aquino’s victory, everybody wanted to be a Liberal with the oligarch-controlled vehicles, NUP, NPC and NP once again in coalition with and supportive of the incumbent president, for vested interest protection and political continuity.
What Diosdado Macapagal started as a new phenomenon in 1962 turned into a “balimbing” culture, the new normal in Philippine politics.
