HOY. Ano ba ang nangyayari sa inyo? Why do you quarrel on your personal choices. Respect one another please. If his or her choice is not your choice, what’s the problem. Kaniya kaniyang kursonada. Pwede ba?
Life in the Philippines keeps evolving. When I was in grade school there were no television yet, and only the very rich families in our town owned radios. Information technology grew faster and the population the same manner. Now we have the internet and we can be on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms. We are now more than 109 million. The laidback towns morphed into urban areas. Maybe we can fault social media. First time to witness how certain persons begin hating each other just because of their presidential preference. Let’s face it. Bongbong Marcos vs Leni Robredo are the main protagonists.
Some of my kids and grandchildren are also oftentimes debating of their choices. Some of them spending their own funds for printing of BBM and Robredo’s polo shirts highlighted by the bets color. My friend Martin Vitug who is dyed in the whole BBM supporter was unfriend in his Facebook account by Jun Cortez. Both are my friends and were former members of Monday Club.
Mel Fausto vs Roger Torno are part of a breakfast group among seniors which have been meeting each morning at a fast food chain n Nepo Mall area in Angeles City for many many years now. Mel recited his reasons why he is for BBM, and met with a stinging rebuke from Roger. Both were spewing anger, according to my source while arguing. Veteran newsman Lino Sanchez Jr. who is also breakfast club member timely intervention cooled down the situation. “Ot mipapate kayo, kilala dakayo ba reng pipapaten yo?” OMG. The goodness and fitness of a president will only be known when he or she take hold the mantle of leadership.
RETRO: Ramon Magsaysay deserves the title “Man of the Masses.” I remember this incident vividly about this well loved president. I was still in shorts and was playing with other kids at the town plaza in my hometown of Porac when a car stopped and a hunk of a man with a buri hat alighted from a car and seemingly sought a direction from an old lady waiting for a ride to Angeles City.
The old lady must have been shocked and unbelieving with a her eyes fixed on the tall man. When she was able to collect herself she was so agitated and waved to everyone she saw and started shouting: “Hoy, hoy I Magsaysay, i Magsaysay.” I wouldn't know what was President Magsaysay's doing in my laid back town, but my young mind was so impressed.
When Magsaysay was voted president he wanted nothing more than to achieve peace. But standing in between was the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) a dissident group led by its Supremo Ka Luis M. Taruc, a tailor from San Luis Pampanga who earlier founded the Hukbo Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap), a guerrilla unit that fought the Japanese invaders during World War 2. He became a member of the congressmen of seven who opposed passages of Bell Trade Act, Parity Rights and the RP-US Bases Agreement. Then President Manuel Roxas reportedly initiated moves to unseat the oppositionist Taruc. He was removed from congress and went back to the hills.
There was this young reporter of the Manila Times, the largest newspaper in the country during those years, who in 1951 covered the Korean War and made a good account of himself. It was his passport to fame. The young Benigno S. Aquino Jr. aka Ninoy of Concepcion, Tarlac was invited by Magsaysay to Malacanang and tasked him to seek for Taruc and convince the latter to lay down his arms. There was an arranged meeting between the two on a hillside somewhere in Porac. The young Ninoy was able to convince the dissident leader.
(As a sidelight, the Aquinos of Tarlac are originally from Angeles City, but the Aquino patriarch, Braulio moved to Concepcion town, then a barrio of Magalang. He had a son named Servillano who became a war hero. Braulio had a son he named Benigno who became a senator and was married to Aurora Aquino. The couple's most popular son was Ninoy, a junior of his father).
Ka Luis Taruc was given a long jail sentence. Magsaysay met his untimely death in a plane crash in Manunggal in Cebu province and wasn't able to redeem his pledge to the jailed Taruc. It was only during the time of President Ferdinand Marcos when he became a free man. He died in his early nineties.