Philippine Presidency: Past Lessons, Future Prospects

By Bernard Karganilla – Malaya

What does it take to be chosen as a country’s Chief Executive, Dean Ma. Jacquiline B. Patarata and her College of Education in the Universidad de Manila want to know.

In the case of the Philippines, past and the prospective presidents have and will be measured against the ideals of the 1896 Revolution. That is due to the historic fact that the Republic was a product of the Revolution. Andres Bonifacio and the Katipunan launched a War of Independence that gave birth to the Republika ng Haringbayang Katagalugan.

Bonifacio and the KKKs formed a nation on the basis of the Kartilya. The Bonifacio template, the Katipunan movement and the 14-point Code of Ethics are the primary features of our Revolutionary Republican heritage to which all of the presidents should have adhered.

Thus, the nation’s top leaders from Quezon to Estrada have spoken on the imperative of completing the Revolution. The phenomenon of EDSA people power was purportedly the 1986 version of a “palace revolution,” the 1972 declaration of martial law was supposed to be the instrument of the Revolution from the Center that leads to a New Society, and the so-called Unfinished Revolution was advocated in the “present feverish period of accelerated decolonization.” [Diosdado Macapagal, "Our Unfinished Revolution," Independence Day Address, June 12, 1963]

The other litmus test for presidents was their role in World War II. Manuel L. Quezon was, of course, the legitimate president whose government-in-exile was recognized by the original United Nations that confronted the first Axis of Evil. Elpidio Quirino lost his wife and children to the fascist Japanese brutes who raped Manila in February 1945. Ramon Magsaysay commanded the guerrillas’ Zambales Military District. Ferdinand E. Marcos attached his name to the valor of Bataan. Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada could not forget the one million Filipino souls lost in the violence of the Japanese Occupation. Diosdado Macapagal kept in mind that “The war in the Pacific was fought to counter the design of a single power to dominate our part of the world.” [Our Unfinished Revolution. Volume III of the Speeches and Statements of President Diosdado Macapagal. Manila: Bureau of Printing, 1964]

A third yardstick is the candidate’s philosophy of statecraft. Magsaysay, for instance, believed that “government starts at the bottom and moves upward, for government exists basically for the welfare of the masses of the nation.” [Jose V. Abueva. Ramon Magsaysay: A Political Biography. Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1971, p. 282]

The pursuer of the presidency must be ready with his philosophy of government, his plans and vision, his proposed policies and programs because there is no way to cram for the nation’s top post. “It provides for no schooling. Once you get in, you’re in the driver’s seat and 54 million people will be riding on your ability to drive.” [Ferdinand E. Marcos, Speech before the alumni of the UP College of Law, January 12, 1986]

The presidential aspirant must have accumulated experience and exposure to different ideas and issues because on Day 1 of his term, he will be compelled to grapple with a formidable range of enormous problems. “The balance of payments, foreign trade, fiscal and monetary policies, the banking system, the tax and tariff systems and their effects on the economy, agriculture, industry, labor and employment, the government organization, the military, the insurgency, the minorities, the dynamics of the body politic at all levels, foreign affairs, geopolitical conflicts and their effects on the nation. I could go on and on…” [Ferdinand E. Marcos, Presidential speech before the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, February 4, 1986, in Arturo C. Aruiza. "Ferdinand E. Marcos: Malacañang to Makiki." QC: ACAruiza Enterprises, 1992, pp. 24-25]

An assignment that the president of 2010-2016 will have to take with firmness, clear head and patriotic heart is the scheduled transformation of the Asean into a single community by 2015. How will this play out? We have constitutional rights that other Southeast Asians ignore. Like the people’s right to health, which the student-delegates of the National University of Singapore at the 10th Asean University Network denied, downgraded and dismissed.

Thus, the Filipino president in the second decade of the 21st century must take a stand for civil liberties. He should recall Diosdado Macapagal’s address at the Opening Meeting of the 19th Session of the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East. “We hold that it is possible and desirable for an Asian to eat his bowl of rice in freedom and dignity. We hold further that over and beyond his bowl of rice, the Asian is entitled to enjoy the rights to education, health, culture and all the other freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” ["Economic Abundance Through Freedom," Philamlife Auditorium, March 5, 1963]

The would-be chief executive should anchor both his foreign and domestic policies on the veracity of Principle No. 2 of the Ten-Point Magsaysay Credo. “I believe that he who has less in life should have more in law.” [Jose V. Abueva. Ramon Magsaysay: A Political Biography. Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1971, p. 282]

Magsaysay’s successor, Carlos P. Garcia, carried on, “dispensing social justice and protecting human rights.” Furthermore, this president spared no effort in “reorienting our national economic policies toward doing first things first.” That is, providing for the fundamental needs of life (food, shelter and clothing) through industrialization. [Inaugural Address as President of the Philippines, Luneta Grandstand, Manila, December 30, 1954]

President Garcia delivered on a theme that ought to be the focus of the contestants in the elections: self-reliance. He remembered that addiction to imports enervates individuals as well as nations. “In case of a blockade as dramatically shown in the last World War, this can be a serious weakness in our national defense.” Charity begins at home and there are no guarantees that other countries will sell to us “our absolute and irreducible necessities of life.” It is our responsibility to feed and arms ourselves and “what happened in the last World War with tragic consequences to our army and our people should spur us to the high resolve never again to neglect this essential side of our economy.”

Garcia’s formula for self-sufficiency and socio-economic progress was the Filipino First Policy. Through this policy, the electric power potential of the Maria Cristina Waterfalls in Iligan was harnessed, the Meralco and Hacienda Luisita were acquired by Filipinos from their original American and Spanish owners, the first Filipino-controlled oil corporation (FilOil) was established, a Filipino shipping corporation acquired the biggest tanker in Southeast Asia, and the tonnage for inter-island shipping was doubled. [Carlos P. Garcia, "Filipino First Policy and Industrial Dispersal," Speech before the MINSUPALA Constitutional Seminar, Zamboanga, March 13-14, 1971]

The current crop of presidentiables should be dared to do better.