My father told me that Doy Laurel is a prime example that the Revolution eats its own children. EDSA 1 despite what people think is a Revolution. Like in any revolution, some die as heroes, some profit by being at the right place and at the right time and those who are thieves and highwaymen suddenly find themselves catapulted to power. Doy Laurel was neither of those I have mentioned. He was eaten by the EDSA Revolution.
Vice President Laurel and my father were members of that UP Law class that figured so much in the history of the nation. This was the Class of 1952. Right after Doy fell from the graces of Queen Cory, my father and Mr Laurel were back in touch after those years.
My family and the Laurels are good friends. My grandfather served under the Second Republic. All my uncles and my father were sent to Japan for studies together with the Laurel sons.
My dad passed away in 1991, a soldier to the end, in defence of the Republic and the Constitution. My father never believed that Corazon Cojuangco Aquino was a duly elected President of the Philippines. My dad was willing to accept that she was installed as President of the Philippines as a result of a bungled coup d’ etat. Since she abrogated the Constitution then in force, she indeed had ABSOLUTE POWER and was the Constitution personified when she proclaimed her Freedom Constitution. Corazon Aquino was the only President of the Philippines in history to have such power. Not even the Dictator that the people booted out and thus gave her the Presidency, had that power. But all these became moot when Aquino appointed a non-elected Constitutional Commission that wrote a charter the electorate overwhelmingly ratified. My father then considered this Constitution as expressive of the Soverein will of the people.
This was the context of the series of notes my dad and Doy Laurel exchanged. They were exploring the ideas what could have been better. Corazon Aquino was President yes, but Laurel was expected to run the government as Prime Minister to provide continuity and to secure the necessary reforms.
Corazon Aquino dissolved the Batasang Pambansa (she had the power to do so) and the 1973 Constitution. However it puzzles me that she could have called a new election and surely the Parliament will be 90% filled with her supporters. The Parliament would have anointed her as President. Even in our Presidential system, the legislature is really the one who presents the crown to the President by proclaiming her election by the people. In the Parliamentary system, this is even clearer and the historical link that the Head of State is answerable to the people’s representatives is sustained. In England today the Queen cannot govern without Parliament. The Queen is in Parliament.
By Aquino’s abrogation of the 1973 Constitution and the fiat of appointing non elected Constitiutional Commissioners, she undoubtly started our route to constitutional chaos and madness. The 1987 Constitution had according to my father, strengthened the separation of powers and as a result destroyed much of the American style checks and balances whose workings are guaranteed more by convention rather than statute. This is the 1987 Constitution’s achiless heel and both Dad and Doy expected another God forbid, an EDSA! I was with Dad when Doy and he had dinner and this was the topic. The year was 1990, about one year before my dad passed away.
Doy lived to see another EDSA and fortunately my Dad missed out on it. He would have wept when the Generals and the Sin went up on stage to present the crown to our Glorious Queen with blessings from the Davide. The people present the crown through their elected representatives. That is Representative Democracy. With these precedents, we may have no representative democracy anymore. BTW Dad the patriotic Freemason was never thrilled by Jaime Cardinal Sin!
My father passed away at a dawn in 1991 after having a chat with Doy Laurel the night before. Doy Laurel was one of the last people to have spoken with him. I never knew what they spoke about for VP Laurel never spoke about the conversation to me. What I remember from Doy’s condolences to the family is that my Dad never wavered in his allegiance to the Constitution.
My father died as a general officer of the Armed Forces having seen combat in his career, first in Korea, Vietnam and against those who wanted to destroy the Republic.
I reflect on these after watching Mrs Celia Diaz Laurel on cable TV being interviewed about her husband’s place in EDSA history. Ever gracious, Mrs Laurel never showed any bitterness but she repeated what I heard from my Dad. “Doy expected to run the government”.
Perhaps we can still repair the unintended damage of EDSA 1. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must have recognized it in saying that the world cannot accept another EDSA. But if she becomes the Great Apo once more, we may have more EDSAs!
But I still remember one thing that 1990 evening. Doy asked me what I thought about it. I said “She had all that power to implement reforms and what has happened. Brownout!”
And the power went out and the gensets roared!
Popularity: 1% [?]
you expect cory to carry out reforms when all those around her were crooks? and the crooks whom he tried to control had tried to depose her by series of coups? – please analyze cory’s presidency from the standpoint of one who has not served Mr. Marcos’ corrupt army.
jcc, that may very well be, but it seems to me that cory had to maintain some sort of modus vivinde with some of the carpetbaggers and turncoats from the marcos reign of greed. one name who comes to mind is ernesto maceda, once a big-time marcos bootlicker, who was among the first given by cory a plum cabinet post (danr with its forestry goldmine), enabling him to stay a key player in philippine politics up to erap’s downfall.
How very strange Ben Blackshama!
My mother graduated from UP Law in 1952 and was a classmate of Doy Laurel and your Dad! She passed away 1993. I never knew that and you and I have never actually met, though it’s been a few years on your blog and mine and now here. Haha.
What a small but wondrous world. Almost makes you wonder about…naaah!
That was a stolen revolution…Same dogs
different collars.
With DJB and blackshama, we thought we are in good company.
THe only thing we are very good at…BLAMING OTHERS AND POINTING FINGERS…
FIrst, the Filipinoas loved marcos…then blamed him and his family and brought them down…then we hailed Cory…then we blamed her and until now we talk bad about her…then FVR won..and blamed him about martial law…then we elected erap…then we blamed him and brought him down…then we have GMA…then we blamed her and still blaming her until this very day…
Why cant we blame ourselves…we are the very reason why we have the worst politicians…we are the very reason why these clowns are robbing us…we are the very reason why these clowns dont care about the Filipino people…we are the very reason why these clowns are still in office…
We are nothing but a failure to our motherland…US!!!!!
Ill tell you what will happen next…we will elect a new president..thinking he will turn our country around and make our lives better…but of course he wont be able to do that..because he is of the same breed as the current clowns right now…so we will blame him again…and then start with protests and demonstrations…and probably ask for him to resign or impeach him/her…
again…WE ARE NOTHING BUT A FAILURE TO OUR MOTHERLAND!!!!!!
jcc
Gringo et al thought Cory was dispensible. That was their funeral and the funeral too of their successor likeminded Peemayers. If Laurel headed the government in 1989, then it is indeed possible that this coup attempt should have never been staged.
Please take off your yellow coloured glasses! The Cory presidency should now be analyzed without the Catholic halo of sanctity!
Blackshama,
The military was considering putting up a ruling junta already.
Your Dad might have hated that idea more.
blackshama,
Cory was lawfully elected by the people. What was absent was the proclamation of the corrupt comelec under the thumb of Mr. Marcos.
Mr. Enrile admitted infront of thousands of people and scores of TV cameras that they have cheated Cory Aquino of her victory through massive election fraud.
A whole of the Comelec Staff incharge of the tabulation of the result of the 1986 snap election walked out in disgust from the tabulation center because they were being ordered to tabulate votes to reflect that Mr. Marcos was winning with a wide margin when the opposite was true.
Gringo et.al., were sidelined by Cory because they still have the Marcos halos in their heads.
They tried to power-grab hoping that the entire military and disgruntled elements of the society (especially the rabib pro-Marcos) would join them, but they were wrong and most of their attempts at power-grab had fizzled out.
Besieged by hungry-power brokers, corrupt military officials, apathetic and duplicitous politicians who thought that Cory was a mere “housewife” who cannot lead the country, these gangs of thieves and brigands continue about their usual business and Cory was helpless to stir the ship to a safe harbor.
Now, you are dreaming of a situation that could have been better had it been your Papa’s best friend, Doy Laurel allowed to rule the country? But the simple fact was that Doy was not elected President, it was Cory. :)
My source told me the Comelec staff incharged of the 1986 snap election walked out not because of an order to tabulate wrong results but because the leader of that Comelec staff was a Ms. Kapunan allegedly related to a Kapunan, a military man, who’s one of the leaders of RAM. The walk-out was part of the conspiracy to topple Marcos.
JPE’s admittance of having cheated Cory in the snap, like his admitting his fake ambush, were, by and large, self-serving.
BERT,
So your position is that the people during the 1986 snap election has elected Mr. Marcos President again?
jcc, i was opposed to marcos’ dictatorial rule but to be fair, let’s not forget that there was a good percentage of the country’s populace fanatically admiring him, plus a big cadre of gluttons and bootlickers who want the sumptuous banquet to go on indefinitely.
i think it would have been wise for cory’s minions to have endeavored to hold a “true” election after marcos’ flight, if only to ensure a “legitimate” presidency. she would have won it convincingly anyway on account of the desperate, emotional, unthinking electorate.
We blame ourselves for electing these leaders
who sammed us…So, it is just fair, to put a
blame on them…peddlers of false hopes.
…peddlers of false hopes.
No comment…
hi mr. blackshama
I read your note about your dad and sir Doy and I showed it to Mrs. Celia Diaz-Laurel. She was asking me if I can find out the name of your dad so she can recall you.
Please email it to me at i_78383@yahoo.com or text me at 0905 545 9998.
thank you.
visit the official website of Vice Pres. Salvador H. Laurel:
http://www.doylaurel.com