JPL Chapter 16

• The Presidential Elections


  1949
• Senate President Jose Avelino of Saman wanted to become the administration's candidate
• Avelino had made a secret agreement with the opposing Visayan Nacionalista candidates for the Senate to support all the aspirants coming from that southern region, provided they would support him for the senate presidency
• As a result, 16 Visayan candidates were among the victorious candidates, while Luzon aspirants like Prospero Sanidad, Servillano de la Cruz, Antonio Araneta, and Eduardo Cojuangco Sr. failed to make it
• In the summer of 1949, Rep. Agripino Escareal of Samar, a sycophant of Avelino, accused Quirino of charges ranging from nepotism to gross expenditures
• The House committee headed by Lorenzo Sumulong recommended acquittal and the House by a vote of 59 to 8, pigeon-holed the resolution
• Quirino's supporters in the Senate by a vote of 12 to 8, suspended the Senate President Avelino for a year after Lorenzo Takada waved four checks made out to Avelino for having facilitated the sale of thousands of cases of beer from the surplus property commission
• By the summer of 1949, nobody of any political stature wanted to become the opponent of Quirino
• Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez, the vice-presidential candidate of the opposition party in 1945, claimed that he had been badly nicked in his pocketbook, and could not afford to run again
• Recto was considered a poor public speaker and unable to attract voters to his side
• The only presidential caliber left was Jose P. Laurel
• When asked by reporters if he was a candidate for the presidency, Laurel gave a sphinx-like smile, and said that "he may or may not run" for president
• Quirino was still pondering about running for lack of "logistics", and when Senator Vicente Madrigal offered to raise 4 million pesos for his campaign, Quirino felt elated as this solved his problem of how to raise funds without soiling his hands
• The results of the preceding senatorial elections held in 1947 had scared all the opposition stalwarts as the Liberals had almost made a "clean sweep"
• Laurel started the year 1949 with an indictment of the Quirino administration, stating that "Never in the last half century has our country been cursed with an administration as corrupt, as full of self-seekers, as cynically indifferent to the people's welfare as the one we are tolerating now"
• A.V.H. Hartendorp, editor of the American Chamber of Commerce Journal, attributed the poor state of affairs to the fact that Quirino "concentrated his attention so entirely on the more constructive aims of his administration that he had no eye for the evils around him"
• Laurel told voters that "a practical politician is not necessary to clean the government. A simple honest administrator is what is needed to consign political malefactors where they belong and give this government a new deal"
• After consulting the leading Nacionalista leaders, Laurel finally told reporters "I'm available before the onset of the rainy season in May"
• The Liberals in various districts of the archipelago began plotting their moves to ensure that their party would win by hook or by crook, and began asking for doles from the party and its presidential candidate
• The Bureau of Public Works began infrastructure projects in provinces considered as administration bailiwicks
• The Liberals chose Senator Fernando Lopez, former Mayor of Iloilo City and younger brother of Eugenio Sr. the sugar magnate, as their vice-presidential candidate
• Rep. Manuel Briones from the vote-rich island of Cebu came from the Nacionalista party as their vice-presidential candidate
• Elpidio Quirino's brothers campaigned in the Ilocano provinces, while the four eldest Laurel boys campaigned in the Tagalog provinces
• Laurel's 20-year-old son Doy started the Laurel Youth Organization to embark on sorties in Mindanao and Visayas
• Laurel was accused of being a "fellow traveler" with the Huks and communists for attacking the administration for being subservient to the Americans
• Quirino did not actively campaign, leaving his party members to do the work
• The opposition filed a petition in the Supreme Court for an injunction to forestall the arrest of Laurel, Recto and Arsenio Lacson
• Somebody fired shots at the platform where Laurel was speaking while on a rally in Cebu, but he resumed his speech as if nothing had happened
• Laurel's wife Paciencia exploded that if her husband was killed, she didn't want any of their sons to come back alive
• Laurel kept a firearm under his pillow
• Two officers left after Laurel's implied threat
• Somebody fired shots at the platform where Laurel was speaking in Cebu
• Everybody on the platform flopped down to the floor except Laurel
• The assailant melted into the crowd as Laurel's bodyguards jumped forward to seize him
• Laurel resumed his speech as if nothing had happened
• Colonel Pepe, Teroy and Mariano had been detailed to protect Laurel
• The Bureau of Internal Revenue issued a statement that Senator Recto had a deficiency tax of P 977,188.88 while Laurel's deficiency tax was P 536,919.44 including a 50 percent surcharge
• Laurel laughed off the accusation, saying "At no time in my lifetime did I earn the amount reported by the BIR tax gatherers"
• A 16-mm. sound film made by an aide of Quirino from files of the U.S. Army and local government records showed Quirino being received by Japanese generals, decorated by Emperor Hirohito, and having a convivial dinner with MacArthur and a reception by President Truman
• The slanted documentary film ended with the question whom would you vote for of the two for President of our country