Gerry Roxas also gave way to Ninoy

Thinking Filipinos were expecting the 2010 presidential race to be of who has the more cash. Despite seeing the worst in 2004, politicians had not begun to reform the money-ruled electoral system. So voters were resigning themselves to choosing from among aspirants driven by raw ambition and not the greater good.

Then came Mar Roxas’s sacrifice of his presidential bid in favor of Noynoy Aquino. The act of statesmanship changed the complexion of the election. Reformists got a shot in the arm: platform, not peso, can still shape the campaign.

Perhaps by Election Day most Filipinos will realize that we need two consecutive good Presidents in order to take off. That’s how grave the curse of the past 11 years has wrought on the land. Voters with a long life ahead or who may not last beyond two six-year presidential terms have to start the corrective process now.

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Had Marcos not imposed military rule on Sept. 23, 1972, there would have been presidential elections in 1973. Political stars Gerry Roxas and Ninoy Aquino would have vied for the Liberal Party nomination. The older Gerry would have had the edge, being the LP president; only much later would Ninoy become secretary general. Gerry was the lone LP to survive the 1969 senatorial balloting; Ninoy topped the 1971 run.

Jovy Salonga, as LP officer then, would have been caught in a bind. He recounts why in his forthcoming book, The Life and Times of Gerry Roxas and Ninoy Aquino. Long Gerry’s golf mate, Jovy had helped him become LP head after the 1967 polls. In 1964 when Gerry ran as Diosdado Macapagal’s VP, Jovy joined him fighting Fernando Lopez. Jovy’s law firm had to resign the lucrative Lopez account, which Gerry appreciated. Jovy had also been Ninoy’s lawyer since 1967, winning for him in the Supreme Court the celebrated case of “underage senator”. Ninoy called Jovy his political mentor, addressing him alternately as Prof and Kuya.

With the turn of events, Jovy witnessed the political relationship of gentle Gerry and brash Ninoy. On at least two major issues Gerry deferred to Ninoy, Jovy narrates in the book.

It was Gerry’s wife Judy who woke up Jovy by phone early Sept. 23, 1972, to report that Marcos had declared martial law. Soldiers had arrested Ninoy, Pepe Diokno and Soc Rodrigo, so Gerry was rushing to Camp Crame to see what he could do. The next day LP officers met at Gerry’s house. Jovy writes: “I had a very private conversation with Gerry after that meeting. He told me about his visit with Ninoy in prison. Ninoy, angry and resentful, shouted at him. Apparently, Ninoy felt that Gerry, as a friend and as head of the Liberal Party, had not done enough for him and the others in the Opposition now behind bars. Gerry, obviously sore, said he kept quiet because there were other people present, nakakahiya naman (it would be shameful), but if Ninoy should shout at him again, he would give it back to Ninoy. I advised Gerry, whose reaction was understandable, to keep his cool. ‘The time may come,’ I said, ‘when we may join the underground.’ He kept quiet.”

Years later on Gerry, Jovy and Lorenzo Tanada’s lobbying, Ninoy was freed from jail to go to America for heart bypass. There in mid-1980 Ninoy broke a “pact of silence with the devil (Marcos)” and began leading the anti-martial law forces. Jovy too would be jailed on bum raps, then let off for treatment of recurring pain of wounds from the 1970 Plaza Miranda bombing. In Mar. 1981 on Gerry’s personal guarantee, Jovy flew to the US. In June that year Gerry too sought medical care for liver cancer. Ninoy was elated that the three of them got to consult more often.

In New York early Apr. 1982 Gerry and Jovy met up to discuss health and party matters. Macapagal was egging Jovy to become LP executive-VP, as successor in case Gerry’s condition worsened. Jovy didn’t know it then, but Macapagal was bypassing Ninoy as LP secretary general and number two man. Gerry must have discerned, though. He was abreast of political developments in the Philippines, active in the formation of the Unido Opposition umbrella. He preferred bringing Ninoy into the loop.

Jovy recalls: “In any case, Gerry proposed that the three highest leaders of the party — he, Ninoy, and myself — confer at his place in New York on April 25. I told him that was fine with me since I was scheduled to deliver a lecture on May 1 at the Harvard School of Public Administration.”

Ninoy’s 1978 Laban party was then fusing with the PDP, and further dissolving into Doy Laurel’s Unido. He needed re-ascendance in the LP as political springboard. But tragedy struck. Jovy continues: “Our conference did not take place. In the early morning of April 20, Ninoy called me from Boston to inform me that Gerry had passed away . . . After a sleepless night, Lydia and I flew to New York, arriving there on April 22. We went to the funeral home, where we saw Judy and their children Dinggoy and Mar Roxas in mourning . . . The priest who celebrated the mass asked me and Ninoy to say a few words, which we did.”

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“Embrace your enemies; they are potential friends.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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