Macapagal and our national regret

Macapagal and our national regret
Robby Tantingco, SunStar Pampanga

As the May 10 elections draw near, let us remember and learn from the life and presidency of Diosdado Macapagal, whose 100th birth anniversary we celebrate this year.

He was not a minor president as many would think. He was, in fact, a great president, “one of the best presidents ever,” as Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco would say. Kapampangans who are disappointed in Gloria Arroyo should take comfort and pride in the legacy of the first Kapampangan President, Diosdado Macapagal, the most honest president the Philippines has ever had.

Cory Aquino once said that Macapagal was, indeed, “a great President,” but that being a great President was his lesser achievement. He was, above all, “a good man.” Even more remarkable, Cory said, he “remained a good man during his presidency, which is a very difficult thing to do, considering the potential of the office for the commission of crimes.”

Macapagal was a poor man when he became president, and continued to be a poor man during and after his presidency. In this country, it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a poor man to win an election, and to stay poor while in office, any office, but especially the Office of the President.

Who would have thought that a poor man could break from the mold, conquer all the political windmills and actually win a presidential election? And who would have thought that this usually cynical nation would actually go out of its way to put a poor man in Malacañang?

It would never happen today. The highest office a poor man can aspire for, I think, would be municipal councilor or vice mayor. The Constitution tried to correct the situation by creating the party-list system, but now that even Sec. Angelo Reyes, Bro. Mike Velarde, Mikey Arroyo, Dennis Pineda and practically every rich politician can claim to represent the marginalized and underrepresented sectors and run under the party-list system, the poor have lost the only route to Congress available to them.

“If a poor man is elected, it’s proof that democracy is working,” Macapagal himself once said. Unfortunately, Macapagal was the last one. We will never again benefit from the brilliance of poor but deserving candidates.

“The poor boy from Lubao” made the eradication of poverty the central theme of his administration—the very same thing billionaire Manny Villar says he will do, but which we all know is an empty promise masquerading as a nice ad jingle.

Macapagal fired all the crooks he could find (because keeping them in office was like appointing arsonists to the fire control brigade); held a Common Man’s Day, where the gates of Malacañang were regularly opened so that folks could sit down for a one-on-one with him; relocated slum dwellers to multi-storey housing tenements; and vetoed the scandalously fat congressional allowances (today’s pork barrel).

Above all, he enacted land reform, which ended feudalism and gave the masses a taste of social justice.

Big landowners, influential politicians and even party mates (who were landowners themselves) had aggressively resisted land reform, the same way the Republicans, drug companies and other interest groups tried to block Obama’s health care, but like Obama, Macapagal risked his presidency to seize the historic moment.

I’m surprised he wasn’t assassinated for it. With that singular act of emancipating our farmers from centuries of shackles, Macapagal became a great president, bigger than life itself.

But he went on to achieve more. In his first two years in office, he invigorated the economy with a 13% increase in the gross national product and a 12% in the national income. The Philippines became the most progressive country in the Far East, next only to Japan .

Although corruption persisted, at least Filipinos were sure there was none in Malacañang (unlike today when it’s the Palace that’s setting the tenor for the rapacity of corruption throughout the country and the impunity with which it is committed), and were confident that crime and punishment always went hand in hand (unlike today when Filipinos have grown so tired of seeing corruption everywhere and everyday that it’s become the rule rather than the exception).

Macapagal also taught his country how to regain its sense of dignity by treating the United States not as superior but co-equal. He moved Independence Day from July 4 (the same day the Americans celebrate their own Independence Day) to June 12 (the day Aguinaldo declared independence from Spain), and initiated the creation of MAPHILINDO (for Malaya, Philippines and Indonesia), the forerunner of the ASEAN, which sought to assert the Malayan race and form a regional alliance to neutralize the growing influence of the United States.

When the United States Congress failed to pass a bill providing for war damage payments to Filipino veterans, Macapagal cancelled a scheduled US trip—a bold and potentially dangerous thing to do for a Philippine president. He also strengthened relations with the anti-US Sukarno government of Indonesia and pursued claims to Sabah , which the Americans interpreted as a sign of growing Filipino nationalism.

And so when Macapagal ran for re-election against Ferdinand Marcos in 1965, it was clear whom Uncle Sam wanted to win.

Another giant that Macapagal was not afraid to displease was the Iglesia ni Cristo. He refused to meet its leader in his own church just to solicit the critical Iglesia vote, arguing that by doing so, he would diminish the dignity of his office.
“I would rather do right than be elected” was what he often said.
Well, he did lose his reelection bid.

The ambitious, charismatic Marcos, with the alluring Imelda beside him, mesmerized voters across the archipelago. They picked the lesser candidate, and put the country on the road to perdition.

Years later, as Cory Aquino surveyed the ruin she had inherited from Marcos, she asked, “Why did Macapagal have to lose to Marcos? His loss was our calamity.”
Of course this is all in hindsight now, but it should give us fair warning about how important electing the right candidate is. Not the most popular, not the most likeable, not even the most qualified—but the right candidate.

Unfortunately, we will not know who the right candidate is until many years after election.

(Last tuesday afternoon of April 20, a Mass and wreath-laying ceremonies will be held at the Lubao parish church and Capitol grounds, respectively, to mark the eve of Diosdado Macapagal’s death anniversary and start the celebration of his birth centenary.)

Diosdado Macapagal
Capampangan, Presidenti, Poeta
(Sept 28, 1910 - April 21, 1997)
Neng Anac Ning Arenas

Cabang ing eleksyun, Mayo palapit na
ganacan taya sa, maging gabe taya
ing milabas nang bie mig-presidenti ya
ing mayap nang anak ning Lubao, Pampanga.

Ing kebaitan nang kadinalang-banua
pagmasusian tane mapilang bulan pa
at bukas 'tang aldo nang pamagpainawa
ngeni, keti't Lubao dian tang panalala.

E ya basta-basta meging presidenti
anti ning palage ding aliwa keti
ing tutu, metung yang presidenting grandi
metung ding kayapan kanita ma't ngeni.

Ya'itang Presidenti Dadong Macapagal
karing presidenti yang pekamarangal
a'ipagkapuri ding Kapampangang sacdal
uli ning dangal nang tapat pepairal.

Nganing Presidenti Corazon Aquino
karing presidenti mayap ya'y Diosdado
dapot e pa iti'ing kepuri nang mismu
nune'ing pamagi nang kayapan a tau.

Uling ing pepakit nang tune kayapan
bilang presidenti mitmu yang dangalan
a tune kasulit agyung imantinian
cakbe ning poder nang aldoldo tatalnan.

Calulu yang limput meging presidenti
calulu pa murin anggang meyalili
at balu ta naman keng gubyernu keti
alang mangalulu, lalu't presidenti.

Ni'ng lubus-misip ing anak kakaluluan
bigla neng apakli ing akasanayan
salba ding pampulitikang kalakaran
at sumambut pam-presidenting alalan.

At ninu ping misip, lubusang manwala
a'iting dati-rati a cynikung bansa
lumuwal ya keng sadyang gawi na at gawa
ban king Malacaniang ipuk ya'ing maluca?

E ya kapilanman marapat na ngeni
yang calulu agyu na pang gawan iti
mekad mag-konsejal o keng mayor-bisi
keng pala-palague tutu neng masuwerti.

Yaping constitution ing buring yustu na
atulid ne iting situasyun pin sana
kapamilatan na ning pamaglalang da
king lista-partidung botuanang sistema.

Dapot ngening maski deting puliticu
di Dennis Pineda at Mikey Arroyo
arepresenta da la ring taung calulu
sera da no cabud dalan pa-congresu.

Uling ing kalulu istung mialal ya
patune mamandar ya ing demokrasya
dapot y Diosdado yang kakatulian na
e ta no kamtan ding kalulung mayap pa.

Ing kalulung anak ning Lubao sipuak na
"lako'ing kakaluluan" yang centrung misyun na
a ing bilionaryung Villar pangaya na
bista't basyu ya mung pangakung balu ta.

'nyang y Macapagal, leko no ding lilu
(anti ding manyilab, gawan mong bumberu?)
karen ngang memalen biklat neing palasyu
dinian nong tuknangan deng tau esteru.

Sigka ne'ing maka-scandalung para-gastus
a ding congresista buri maging utus
babo nita, linsad neing actung manatbus
para dake'ing gabun karing palad-kapus.

Hacinderu at maimpluensiyang puliticu
keng pamamie gabun matni lang tinerku
anti nang Obama, sigal neng Diosdadu
ing presidencia queng historicung tiempu.

At queting cabud nang actung pamilaya
caring magsasacang siglu tenikala
meging presidenti yang mipadambana
keng degulan ning bie migit ya pang misna.

Dapot sinulung pa ding keyang pirusta
tinas ne keng bansa ing economiya
peka-progresibung bansa ya king Asia
kadua mu keng Hapon kabyayan ding masa.

At ing katiwalian nung man menatili
balu ra ding tau, Malacaniang ali
(e na anti ngeni alang pasubali
karin pa palasyu manibat ing api).

Ding tau compiansa lang ing katiwalian
kayagnan ne't kakbe ing kaparusahan
(e kalupa ngeni, sinawa ne y Juan
aldoldo nu maski marap garapalan).

Mabilug a bansa murin tiru ne ya
ing pasibayung abawi'ing dignidad na
anti mo, turing king bansang America
e bilang superior nune kapante ra.

Linipat neng aldo adose ning Junio
ning Independence Day pagmasusian tamu
sadya kagnan tala ding Americanu
pagsilebran tayang acuatru de Julio.

Itang MAPHILINDO ya ring megumpisa
MAlyasia, PHILippines ampon INDOnesia
bilang aliansa da ding lahing Malaya
pangontra king poder na ning America.

Iniang e re pesar ding Americanu
ing pondu ring beteranung Pilipinu
qng takdang punta nang Amer'ca Diosdadu
bigla neng binuerta, bilang contra-actu.

Pepatibe nya rin ing pamakisanga
kang Sukarnu na ning bansang Indonesia
at pirsigian ne ing ankamin keng Sabah
iti e milingad karin America.

Nganing America, senyales ne canu
ning nationalismu caring Pilipinu
nya'ing alalan banua ning sisenta'y singcu
tula nang simbut neng Marcos y Diosdado.

Metung pang iganting amun kang Diosdado
e na ketakutan, Iglesia ni Cristo
tinggiyan nang makikit king pisamban mismu
nung para akua ne ing karelang botu.

Ngana, micompromisu ya opisina
at anti'ing madalas pane sasabyan na
mas gawan naing ustu kesa mialal ya
oita mesambut ya keng re-eleksyun na.

Ing Ferdinand naman a charismaticu
siping na'y Imelda ning ma-ambisyosu
amesmera dala ding sablang magbotu
king kelaparan na ning archipelagu.

Ding kulang-king- miguit ilang binotu ra
at kebit deing bansa keng ikalugma na
nganang Tita Cory mapilan pang banua
'ot y Macapagal, simbut neng Marcos pa!

Ing keyang kasambut calamidad te ngan
siyempre iti ngan ken nang pamibalikdan
dapot dapat maging pabala ya mu man
kaimportanti ning ibotung pilinan.

E ing pekasikat yang dapat ibotu
aliwa ing peka-sibuburyan tamu
e pin ing pinaka-qualipikadu
nune nung ninu ing ustung candidatu.

Keng malas e taya abalu nung ninu
karing kandidatu nung ninu ing ustu
anggang e la miras palabasan tamu
ding dakal a banua 'bat ning pamagbotu.

Likas ya pu keng masanting a articulu nang Ca Robby bilang papugue pu ning malucang,Anac Ning Arenas