EDITORIAL - Never wish for a 12-0

Except for local legislative bodies such as municipal and city sanggunians, it is next to impossible to obtain a complete shut-out victory in multi-seat races such as for the Senate. Thus for President Aquino to even think of a 12-0 sweep for his senatorial bets is preposterous.

There can be very rare exceptions, of course. The only time it happened was in the April 1978 elections for the Interim Batasang Pambansa, when the country was still under martial law and Ferdinand Marcos was the dictator.

In that election all 13 candidates of the opposition Pusyon Bisaya won as representatives of Central Visayas to the IBP. The 13-0 Pusyon win, plus a lone opposition winner from Mindanao, was ironic in that it prevented what would have been a complete sweep by the KBL party of Marcos.

The 13 Pusyon winners were Natalio Bacalso, Bartolome Cabangbang, Eutiquio Cimafranca, Alfonso Corominas, Hilario Davide, Filemon Fernandez, Jorge Kintanar, Valentino Legaspi, Mariano Logarta, Enrique Medina, Dominador Pernes, Jesus Villegas and Julian Yballe.

The lone winner from Mindanao was Reuben Canoy of the Mindanao Alliance. He represented Region X or Northern Mindanao. Except for the 13 Pusyon winners and Canoy, all the other 163 winners from the rest of the regions were KBL.

But the 13-0 sweep of Pusyon in 1978 happened under very different circumstances. Under martial law, there were only two choices -- either you were for Marcos or against him. If you were against him, you must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Such was the bravery of those 13 Pusyon men and the people in Central Visayas rewarded them with their resounding vote. Not even Marcos dared reverse how the Bisayas voted. If there was anything even Marcos learned from the experience, it was how powerful a vote can be.

And so it would be wise for Aquino not to push too hard for a 12-0 the way Marcos did for his KBL. Today the people vote in an environment of freedom. If they feel they are being dictated in any way, the reverse could happen, the way it did in 1978.

Another lesson Aquino might wish to learn: The fight for freedom did not begin with the death of his father but merely hastened its end. The real fight began with Pusyon, whose victory emboldened the people and gave way to Cebu's Freedom Marches, the real father of people power.