MANILA, Philippines ? Patriotism and dedication to public service clearly marked politicians nurtured in the pre-Marcos era and differentiated them from those that followed. ?What?s Happening to Our Country: The Life and Times of Emmanuel Pelaez,? the biography of the former vice president who served in the Macapagal administration, clearly illustrates the contrast between those formed by a more civil period in our history and those heavily influenced by the examples of a president who kept himself in power for over two decades, plundered the economy and set the record for human rights abuses.
Authored by political commentator Nelson Navarro, the Pelaez biography is now available at National and other bookstores. We, the children of Emmanuel, through the foundation named after him, mobilized and made available the resources for the book primarily because we hope that the retelling of our father?s life and the foundation named after him could help jump-start a movement toward the return of genuine servant leadership, selflessness and love for country.
Touted as the heir apparent of the extremely popular President Ramon Magsaysay, our Papa was the youngest in the 1954 Senate and considered presidential timber in the run-up to the 1957 and 1961 elections for the posts of the land. But being part of an era when the common good took priority over ambition and self-interest, he bided his time until 1964 when he sought the Nacionalista party presidential nomination.
At home, it never occurred to us just how important and influential our father was as a top government official. Even in 1961 after Papa was elected vice president, I recall one of my brothers, who was no more than 10 years old then, awed by a car in the parking lot of his school carrying the plate number ?8.? He surmised that the owner of the car must be a VIP?not realizing that our father was entitled to a car plate with an even lower number.
That?s just how it was then. More the rule than the exception, the children of political figures did not feel entitled to perks and special privileges. We rode a carpool to school together with Bing Rodrigo, the daughter of the respected senator who lived a few blocks from us. At the Baguio Country Club, which always had a quorum of politicians and government officials vacationing with their families in the summer, we would all wait our turn at the bowling alley and the extremely popular ping-pong tables. We followed the example of our parents and those who claimed special privileges were considered brazen.
We lived at a time when ?politician? merely meant ?someone in politics? and it was perfectly all right to use that word when filling out forms that asked for your father?s occupation.
Up to the early ?70s when our government had the semblance of a democracy and our father had given up his presidential ambitions settling for a congressional then a senatorial post, our home was always filled with people. They came usually at breakfast time to seek medical assistance for themselves or their loved ones, to secure a ticket home to the province after being disillusioned by the real opportunities offered by the capital, to get a recommendation for a job. Papa always found the time to talk to them, refer them to the appropriate agency and occasionally, house some of them. At that time, compassion still marked the politician.
Coconut levy
It did not surprise us that as an assemblyman in the Philippine parliament in the early ?80s, Papa waged a fiery crusade against the coconut levy, ?perhaps the biggest of all Marcosian scandals,? according to Navarro. As a result of his unrelenting pursuit of truth and justice for the coconut farmer in a period when political opposition was hardly tolerated, he was ambushed and nearly died in 1982. The coconut levy was dismantled soon after as political conditions deteriorated and the government was threatened by its biggest blunder?the summary execution of political exile Ninoy Aquino at the airport tarmac.
In that era before media became entertainment and vice-versa, politicians did not always need to cast themselves strictly as heroes and their enemies simply as villains. Bred in the age of reason, politicians from Ninoy Aquino to Doy Laurel to Papa somehow kindled the hope that Marcos could be persuaded to share or give up power within the established system?until the brutal killing of the former.
Turning point
To quote Navarro: ?For Manny (Pelaez), Ninoy?s death was the final turning point of his long-drawn relationship with Ferdinand Marcos. He hadn?t given up on the man?not even when he was almost fatally ambushed in 1982?and still considered Marcos redeemable until those bullets at the airport snuffed out Ninoy?s life. Manny had always condemmed the sin, never the sinner.
?He never accused Marcos of killing Ninoy or being behind his own ambush the year before, but enough was enough. Marcos would have to take responsibility for pushing the country to the very brink of chaos and, what he (Pelaez) always feared, fratricidal conflict.?
The following year, Papa resigned as Region X chairman of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan and went on terminal leave from the party.
Was Papa quixotic in his refusal over almost two decades to judge Marcos as the power-hungry despot who ultimately ruined Philippine democracy? Perhaps he was. Nevertheless, his optimism and readiness to always give others the benefit of the doubt until evidence made it impossible to do so seems to be part and parcel of the mind-set that believes in reason, reform and the power of people to change within appropriate structures.
The foundation named after him will continue to carry on this mind-set through its key programs. Proceeds of the book, for instance, will be earmarked for the Emmanuel Pelaez Leadership and Campaigns Program, a four-day workshop for potential Mindanao politicians organized by the Ateneo School of Government. The program to be launched mid-year will inspire candidates for local positions to embrace the leadership values embodied by Papa and the hope he always kindled for his country and its people.
