Tantingco: Ninoy Aquino and his three Presidents

IT PROBABLY won't happen, but if incoming President Noynoy Aquino rides with outgoing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on their way to his inauguration next month, as tradition dictates, it won't be the first time that an Aquino and a Macapagal are in a limousine together en route to a presidential inauguration.

In 1961, incoming President Diosdado Macapagal picked up outgoing President Carlos P. Garcia from Malacañang Palace before proceeding to Luneta, where a huge crowd was waiting to witness the swearing-in. There was a third person in the car with them: Ninoy Aquino.

Only 29 at the time, Ninoy was the Wonder Boy from Tarlac: youngest elected Mayor at 22, then youngest elected vice governor at 27, and now governor.

While still mayor, Ninoy had moonlighted as President Ramon Magsaysay's technical assistant, driving to Malacañang after office hours to dine with President Magsaysay, review his correspondence and edit his speeches until the wee hours, before driving back to his office in Concepcion, Tarlac first thing in the morning. He did this every single day.

At that time, Magsaysay's huge popularity eclipsed his vice president, Carlos Garcia, whose dark skin, flowery speech (he was a poet) and probinsyano ways (born in Bohol, both parents natives of Abra) made him an object of ridicule among Palace insiders.

"At that time no one was talking to Garcia," Ninoy recalled. "He would go to the Palace and no one would pay attention to him. J.V. Cruz would shove a blank sheet of paper under his nose and say, 'Here, Carlos, sign this!' And the poor vice president would obediently sign it."

Ninoy, however, went out of his way to give the Vice President the respect he deserved. "I was the only one who paid him attention," Ninoy said. He served him coffee, played chess with him, and engaged him in long conversations, so that when Magsaysay died in a plane crash and Garcia became the President, Ninoy was invited back to the Palace to continue serving as the new President's technical assistant.

When the 1961 presidential elections came up, Garcia's Vice President, Diosdado Macapagal, who had always been with the opposition Liberal Party, decided to challenge Garcia, who belonged to the Nacionalista Party.

Ninoy, although a Kapampangan like Macapagal, found himself on President Garcia's side, and he pulled out all the stops to make his boss win reelection.

For example, to cut Macapagal's lead in the Kapampangan Region and the rest of vote-rich Central Luzon, President Garcia picked a Kapampangan (Gil Puyat of Guagua) as running mate.

The Palace also turned the presidential race into a three-cornered fight by convincing another Kapampangan, Senator Rogelio de la Rosa-the most popular movie star at the time and Macapagal's own town mate, co-zarzuelista, and brother-in-law-to run for President.

De la Rosa was supposed to campaign only in Luzon (where Macapagal was strongest) and not Visayas and Mindanao (where Garcia was strongest), so that the brothers-in-law would split the Luzon votes between them.

But the plan backfired after De la Rosa, encouraged by the huge crowds that attended his rallies, began extending his campaign to the Visayas. Soon, De la Rosa was taking more votes away from Garcia than from Macapagal!

So the Palace pressured De la Rosa to withdraw, which he eventually did, with only a few days left before the elections.

On election day, while President Garcia went home to Bohol to vote, Ninoy stayed in Malacañang to monitor the situation. Initial returns showed his boss trailing badly. Even Garcia's running mate Gil Puyat was the kulelat in the three-cornered vice presidential race, behind Macapagal's partner Emmanuel Pelaez and independent candidate Sergio Osmeña Jr.

At this point, a sinister plot was allegedly hatched to sabotage Macapagal's proclamation.

According to the plan, vote fraud would force President Garcia not to recognize Macapagal's victory, and both the Senate and the House, controlled by Garcia's Nacionalista Party, would proclaim third-placer Osmeña as Vice President, and then, in the absence of a clear winner in the presidential race, declare Osmeña acting President. (Sounds familiar?)

Fortunately, Osmeña did not go along and instead immediately conceded to Pelaez. Macapagal was proclaimed President.

On his inauguration day, Macapagal drove to the Palace to pick up outgoing President Garcia and his assistant, Ninoy Aquino.

"When we arrived at the Luneta, people were cheering Macapagal," Ninoy recalled.

Macapagal was sworn in as 9th President of the Philippines, with second wife Eva Macaraeg and children beside him. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was only 14 at the time (and Noynoy Aquino was just one).

After the ceremonies, ex-President Garcia and Ninoy Aquino suffered one more humiliation when the crowd booed them as their car left Luneta.

(Cheers for Macapagal and boos for Aquino-with the shoe now on the other foot, will history repeat itself on inauguration day?)

Although he knew Ninoy had been part of the black propaganda against him, Macapagal extended an olive branch to his fellow Kapampangan. He told Ninoy: "I hope I have a chance to work with you, Ninoy. Give me a chance to help you. We are both Kapampangans. Who knows? Maybe you'll be the next Kapampangan President."

And so, for the third time, Ninoy found himself shuttling between Tarlac and Malacañang as both Governor and presidential assistant (he would later win a Senate seat). He did seem destined for the presidency-but, as it turned out, God had other plans for him.

In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos defeated Macapagal.

Ninoy recalled: "When Magsaysay took me in, I was siga. When Magsaysay died, suddenly nobody knew me. Then Garcia took me in, and I was siga again. Garcia lost, I was back to being nobody. When Macapagal took me in, I was siga once more. Macapagal lost, again nobody knew me."

With Marcos as President, luck had finally run out on Ninoy.

(Source: The Aquinos of Tarlac by Nick Joaquin)

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