The first Philippine Republic was established in 1899 when the Malolos Constitution was drafted and approved by the delegates. Emilio Aguinaldo was elected President. This was deemed dissolved after the Americans captured Emilio Aguinaldo who took his oath of allegiance to America under the Treaty of Paris which recognized the purchase of America of the Philippines from Spain.
The second Philippine Republic was established in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The Philippines was granted “independence” but remained under the control of the Japanese. Jose Laurel was elected President and had three functional branches; the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary. This puppet government was dissolved after the defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific War.
The third Philippine Republic was established in 1946 after the Americans granted the Philippines independence. It was not “independence” per se but more like independence with an umbilical cord still attached to America. Americans were granted parity rights which led to the amendment of the 1935 Constitution and they also kept their bases in the country under a ninety-nine year lease. The Americans even went to the extent of threatening to withold war reparations if the parity rights and bases lease were not approved.
The fourth Philippine Republic was established through the 1973 Constitution. This was the work product of the 1971 Constitutional Convention. The Philippines changed its form of government from the republican bicameral system to the parliamentary form patterned after the French model. The first election under this Constitution was held in 1978 for the Interim Batasang Pambansa or the National Parliament.
Marcos was ousted in February 1986. Cory Aquino was sworn in as President even before Marcos was evacuated out of Malacanan. No question was raised about the specter of a constitutional crisis with the country having two claimants to the Presidency. Marcos was proclaimed by the Batasang Pambansa as the winner of the snap election but the coup staged by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and AFP Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos led to Marcos not having the support of the armed forces. Bottomline, mob rule prevailed over the rule of law. America decreed that Cory was to become President.
Under the power-sharing agreement between Cory and Doy Laurel, the latter would be concurrent Vice-President and Prime Minister. Cory reneged on this arrangement by declaring a revolutionary government under a hastily drafted Freedom Constitution, which effectively abolished the 1973 Constitution. The Constitutional Commission was formed to draft a new constitution. Thus was born the Fifth Republic or what is commonly known as the EDSA Republic.
The abolition of the 1973 Constitution was a knee-jerk reaction to the desire of the triumphant opposition to erase all the vestiges of Marcos from government. This led to the wholesale removal of both elected and appointed officials in government and their replacement with those whom the victors deemed to be loyal to them.
The more rational heads in the academe and civil society appealed for reason but they were brushed off by those who were bent on political vendetta. The security of tenure of career government officials were ignored if they were identified with Marcos or his officials. They were dismissed from the civil service for that simple reason.
Nothing was probably more stupid than the abolition of a whole ministry. The Ministry of Energy was abolished. All plans and programs of the Marcos administration were thrown out. It was a free-for-all for the triumphant victors. This was the primary cause of the tumult and chaos in the Cory administration. Political vendetta was the order of the day.
You will notice a pattern of double-standard and hypocrisy in the governance of the Yellowidiots post-Marcos. There was widespread electoral fraud in the first Presidential election in 1992. It was obvious that the forces of evil, as represented by Imelda Marcos and Eduardo Cojuangco, who both ran for the Presidency, did not stand a chance against Cory’s anointed Fidel Ramos. The latter won with only 23% of the vote when the counting was done.
Joseph Estrada won the Vice-Presidency because of his popularity and track record as the Mayor of San Juan. It was expected that he would become the next President in the 1998 election. He did win but was ousted in 2001 in another EDSA “revolution” despite his adherence to the rule of law. His acquittal at his impeachment trial was expected since he had the Senate majority needed. But since the Yellowidiots deemed that Erap should go, the rule of law was again substituted by mob rule.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo succeeded Erap. The Judiciary had to invent the doctrine of constructive resignation to legimitize her assumption to the Presidency. No sooner that she had a falling out with Cory Aquino over the issue of Hacienda Luisita that ouster moves against her began. Unlike Erap who was not too cunning, GMA was a different political animal altogether. She survived all attempts against her government and was able to complete her term until 2010.
Perhaps it was divine providence which opened the eyes of Filipinos to the wrong that the Yellowidiots did to them with the election of Noynoy Aquino as President. The son would continue doing the work of his mother as far as political vendetta goes. His administration was similar to the final chapter in The Godfather where Michael Corleone goes after all the family’s enemies. This was what Noynoy did in his administration when he was not committing one blunder after the other.
During all this time, the Marcos’ were the punching bag of the Yellowidiots. There was never a time when they held themselves accountable for the consequences of their actions. As such, every longstanding problem the country faced was attributable to martial law and the Marcos dictatorship. GMA came to a close second when it came to PNoy’s need to make excuses for his government’s inability to preform the basic function of governance. The people could not wait for him to step down as life was made more miserable under his watch.
Fidel Ramos had had enough of the shenanigans of Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas. The two sons of the wartime collaborators, Manuel and Benigno, found themselves at the helm of their father’s political party. Ramos knew that nothing would come out of a Roxas Presidency folllowing Aquino’s. Ironically, a beneficiary of Cory’s political vendetta, Rodrigo Duterte, was who Ramos had in mind as the next President.
We will never be privy to what transpired behind-the-scenes but Marcos never explained why he chose to run for Vice-President when he could have run for President in 2016. Perhaps Marcos wanted to test the reception of the Filipino people first. It may also be due to the fact that if he did run for President, he would be facing Mar Roxas and the whole government machinery against him. It was too large a risk to take at that point in time. Marcos could not win in a close race with the Comelec firmly in the hands of an Aquino lackey in Andy Bautista.
In the end, Duterte won and Marcos was cheated. Apo Lakay was finally buried and Marcos filed an election protest against Robredo. He was not given an appointment in the Duterte administration. Marcos is never one to throw his weight around and he waited for the political gods to decide what would be the game plan for 2022. He was not looking at the Presidency as his right. He was amenable to being the Vice-President of Sara Duterte if this was the plan.
Fate intervened again and the rift between father and daugther widened due to the power play between the President, his close aide and his political backers and the daugther. Marcos had to make a decision and filed his candidacy for President. Throughout this time, he kept the lines of communication open and made it clear that he was amenable to sliding down if this is what it would take to have a united front for the 2022 election.
Marcos understood that unity was the key to finally putting an end to the divisiveness that the politics of vendetta wrought on the country. This is why unity is the main theme of his candidacy. It also neutralizes the strategy of the opposition to focus on black propaganda, mudslinging and mob rule over the rule of law.
With only eighteen days to go before election day, Marcos is poised to become the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines. He will have the distinction of staging what is probably the greatest political comeback of any politician who has been the subject of a US-mandated regime change. He will also become the first President elected with more than fifty-percent of the vote. It will just be gravy if he wins an overwhelming majority that will set a record in the political history of the country.
It took a Rodrigo Duterte for Filipinos to realize that it was time to finally be truly independent of the Americans. He has shown what can be done in a short period of time by a government that understands that its primary function is public service. Duterte has not been able to deliver on all his campaign promises but he did well enough that Filipinos would have elected him to another term if it was allowed and he opted to run.
The Philippines is still in good hands after Duterte. The leadership triumvirate of Marcos, Sara Duterte and GMA will ensure continuity. They will also push for structural reforms, foremost of which is the amendent or the complete overhaul of the 1987 Constitution. This is now possible with the mandate that Filipinos are set to give Marcos.
It could not have come at a better time as the country faces a challenging economic environment with the disruption caused by the pademic and the geopolitical challenges poised by superpower rivalry between the US, China and Russia.
This will also mark the end of thirty-six years of divisiveness pitting Filipino against Filipino. It actually began in 1967 with the election of Benigno Aquino Jr. to the Senate. It will end with him and his successors, Cory and Noynoy, all together at the Manila Memorial Park. There is a divine irony in how events have played out.
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