“Almost every succeeding chapter in our political history thereafter was marked by personal ambition and betrayal, thwarting genuine unity”
Unity is perhaps the most abused yet over-used word in Philippine political lexicon.
I listened to PBbM’s speech in his Alyansa’s Malolos rally, where once again, he spoke of unity as key to Philippine progress. Look who’s talking, I thought. Unity was his one and only message throughout the 2022 campaign. Now it sounds like a broken record.
His father also touted unity, and under martial rule, put the post-war Liberals and Nacionalistas together through his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan.
Recall that Marcos Sr. was a Liberal until his fellow Liberal, Pres. Diosdado Macapagal, reneged on a promise that he would not seek re-election, and instead endorse Marcos as successor in 1965.
So Marcos turned coat, joined the NP under the sponsorship of Speaker Jose B. Laurel Jr. who was replaced by LP Cornelio Villareal throug h mass turncoatism engineered by Macapagal.
Marcos then proceeded to run in the NP convention and triumphed in the second ballot, after Imelda convinced Fernando Lopez to be her husband’s running mate. A united front between the North and Visayas materialized.
Seven years later, Marcos declared martial law, abolished the office of vice-president and dismantled the business empire controlled by Fernando’s younger brother, Eugenio.
When Marcos was ailing and his succession became a matter of speculation, a tipping point occurred when Ninoy Aquino, the Liberal Party’s presumptive pre-martial law presidential candidate, returned from exile and was immediately assassinated in the airport.
Nacionalista loyalist Salvador Laurel, after having formed a coalition between the NPs and LPs called UNIDO, or United Nationalist Democratic Organization, later joined forces with Ninoy’s widow, Corazon Cojuangco, first cousin of Danding and coconut industry monopolist by decree.
Together, Cory and Doy challenged the elder Marcos in the snap elections of Feb. 8, 1986.
Once again, there was a “unity” team although both Ninoy and Doy were bosom friends, forged during the post-war imprisonment of their fathers, Pres. Jose P. Laurel and Speaker Benigno Aquino Sr.
(For trivial aside, Marcos Sr., Ninoy and Doy were Upsilon fraternity brothers. And for personal disclosure, this writer became a friend of Ninoy in the United States, and was convinced by him to help Doy in organizing the political opposition back home.)
No sooner had the EDSA uprising ensconced Cory and Doy after the Americans shanghaied the Marcoses along with Danding Cojuangco into Hawaii, the first post martial law “uniteam” was sundered in the shoals of broken promises and compromised leadership.
Still, looking further back, was not the revolution started by Andres Bonifacio’s KKK later conjoined with Emilio Aguinaldo’s Magdalo, another “uniteam”? That unity of the landed elite with the plebeian Magdiwang dissolved after Bonifacio’s dastardly execution in Maragondon.
Almost every succeeding chapter in our political history thereafter was marked by personal ambition and betrayal, thwarting genuine unity.
After the Pacific War, where millions of Filipinos died in a war not their own, with our capital Manila destroyed by the carpet bombing of our American “liberators,” ambitions once again broke the Grand Old Party and gave birth to the Liberal Party of Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino and Jose Avelino.
The Liberal Roxas defeated the Nacionalista Osmena Sr., and after Roxas’ untimely death, successor Elpidio Quirino reigned as president until his own protégé, Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay was groomed by the CIA to replace him.
Magsaysay bolted the Liberal Party and joined the Nacionalistas, winning by a landslide.
Fast forward to mid-2021 when the surveys showed that it would be a close fight for the presidency if BbM, Sara and Manila mayor Isko Moreno were to run for president. At the time, the Liberal Leni Robredo kept saying she would not run for president.
Over an intimate Jan. 24, 2021 Malacanang dinner in a room where hang a giant painting of Lapu-Lapu, this writer asked PRRD whether Inday Sara would run for president.
The president first told us that the Marcos couple visited him during the holidays, where Bongbong told him he would run for president come 2022, to which he gave no encouragement and merely kept silent.
Then he described Marcos Jr. as unworthy, which he later publicly stated.
“Hindi tatakbo si Sara for president,” he said firmly, then added, “dapat itong si Bong Go” who was seated beside him.
Sen. Go demurred, saying “Hindi po ako handa…kung vice, pwede po siguro.” To which I and a few original Duterte supporters proposed an “Isko-Bong” tandem.
The former president’s indecision eventually led to a BbM-Sara tandem in November of 2021, and a “Uniteam” was proudly proclaimed.
Look where we are now.