Manolo Quezon is #TheExplainer Newsletter - Dutertes and Marcoses
Just a note on the Dutertes and the Marcoses, based on the interesting book by Earl Parreño. The President's parting ways with the Marcoses has led to an escalation of innuendo and attack. A side note missed out by observers and commentators today, is that the President at the start of his turn, took bizarre pains to downplay cocaine as both target and threat.
The President's father, associated himself with Sotero Cabahug and his brother Tosong who were appointed Sec. of Public Works and Acting Governor of Cebu respectively by President Osmeña in 1945. Vicente Duterte was appointed acting Mayor of Danao, Cebu.
The vice-mayor of Vicente Duterte was Luis Almendras, uncle of Alejandro Almendras who would become a political kingpin in Mindanao.
With the defeat of Osmeña by Roxas in 1946, Duterte would lose his position by 1947. Vicente Duterte engaged in copra buying in Cabadbaran and in 1949 the Duranos edged out the Almendrases in Danao. In the political wilderness, The Almendrases shifted to Davao.
By 1951 Alejandro Almendras had succesfully won the governorship of Davao province as a Nacionalista; he invited Vicente Duterte to join him in Davao as a lawyer and adviser. Almendras would prove adept at aligning himself with the national leadership of the NP.
Almendras would end up appointed by Pres. Garcia in 1958 as Secretary of the newly-created Department of General Services, with Vicente Duterte made Acting Governor of Davao; by 1959, Almendras was a senator, and Vicente Duterte had run for, and won, governorship of Davao.
By 1961 relations between Almendras and Duterte were deteriorating but Vicente won re-election in 1963. In 1964 Almendras helped Marcos secure the Senate Presidency and the Nacionalista nomination for the presidency. FM asked Almendras to be his Mindanao campaign manager in '65.
In 1966 President Marcos appointed Duterte to the Department of General Services (which Almendras had held a decade before: this suggested a path to the Senate) but he wasn't nominated by the NP to run for the Senate. But Davao had been divided into 3 new provinces.
Vicente Duterte wanted to run for congressman; Marcos offered to make him Mindanao campaign manager and spare him from a Cabinet revamp; Duterte insisted on running; FM gave his support to another candidate for the NP nomination. Duterte ran anyway as an independent.
Almendras publicly declared support for Duterte but Duterte would become convinced he was betrayed. Marcos threw his support behind Duterte's opponent. Duterte lost and three months after his defeat, in 1968, Duterte died. Soledad Duterte would be become famously anti-Marcos.
But the President's mother, though she became a Cory Crusader for the Snap Elections, would also withdraw her support. On December 28, 1990, she made a public statement launching the "Cory Resign" movement, calling on her to resign and hand over power to Vice-President Laurel.
The story of how Duterte became a fiscal, and then was appointed OIC Vice-Mayor, and then Mayor, is interestingly told in the book. In all of the above, after the initial appointment by Aquino, RRD wasn’t of that alignment; he not only ran against the Cory candidate, he received the support of Alejandro Almendras and recall, he himself became a member of the RAM-affiliated Guardians.
What it suggests is both pre and post 1986, whether the deeper alignment of the Dutertes was with the old anti-Marcos factions of the NP (ergo his mother's support for Laurel) just as the reconciliation and alignment with Almendras post 1986 is interesting (also explaining RRD: his style is Almendras, see below).
Additional Readings
An interesting bit of political lore from down South in the premartial law era.I shared this on May 8, 2020:
Senator Alejandro Durano Almendras (27 Feb. 1919 - 4 Aug. 1995) was a political sponsor of Vicente Gonzales Duterte (Nov. 23, 1911 – Feb. 21, 1968), until, that is, they had a falling out. At the time, Duterte was already Governor of the then still-undivided Province of Davao. Almendras put up a candidate against Duterte, who lost. During that campaign, to give a flavor and style of the man (Almendras) and his times, there are those who can still recount how Landring Almendras bragged about the size of his manhood and scurrilously regaled listeners with how, he claimed, Soledad (Duterte’s wife) played with it. What is remarkable aside from how male braggadocio in political slugfests in Mindanao worked at the time, is how it seems Almendras became the political idol of Duterte’s son, who, if anyone cares to recall, likes to brag along similar lines to disparage political foes today. Taking the put down style of the man who put down his dad —vintage 60s in the 20s.
Almendras played a role in how Senate President Marcos saved his senate presidency by unstopping the clocks:
"13 o’Clock," by Quijano de Manila, June, 1963 — mlq3.tumblr.com
...The Senate was, therefore, at least partly, playing to the gallery when it decided to railroad the appointments, the Nacionalistas being egged on to this unexpected move by the cheers of the crowd, while the Liberals were stayed from any attempt to oppose the instant confirmation of the appointments by the gallery’s very audible feelings. So, the mass confirmation was pushed through; the chanting of the appointees’ names commenced and went on and on until late in the night. Each name read sent some person or some group jumping and whooping with joy in the gallery.
But the debate that followed, on disputed presidential appointments, touched off sparks that would leap into a blaze during the actual session later in the night.
The name of one appointee, a fiscal for Davao, had elicited a loud “I object!” from Senator Almendras. The name was set aside, then brought up for discussion when Congressman Crisologo had finished reading the lists of appointments. Senator Antonino rose to defend the appointment of the Davao fiscal. As soon as he had stopped speaking, Almendras asked for the floor. The chair recognized “the other gentleman from Davao.” Bristled Almendras: “I am the only gentleman from Davao here.” Senator Antonino was, according to Almendras, properly the gentleman from Nueva Ecija: “We do not recognize him as a political leader in Davao.”
That may have been the straw that started the fire that almost burned down Marcos...
But the LPs, too, had been maneuvering; the pandemonium on the floor had a purpose. If Antonino could not be dislodged, he could be prevented from pushing his move through. The LPs’ filibuster had engaged an important ally. Unnoticed by most people in the chamber, the stopped clock on the dais had been set running again (it had been stopped twice that night) and was moving toward a mythical midnight. Suddenly, Senator Almendras stood up and advised the chair that the time by the Senate clock was five minutes past twelve: “I move that the session be adjourned.” Without ado, Marcos banged down the gavel and declared the session closed.
Revealed: the secret meaning behind the tiny tattoo on Philippine president Duterte’s hand | South China Morning Post — www.scmp.com
Revealed: the secret meaning behind the tiny tattoo on Philippine president Duterte’s hand.
Portrait of the Great Eagle Father as President – Manuel L. Quezon III — www.quezon.ph
Portrait of the Great Eagle Father as President A character sketch of a man both uncomplicated and complex by Manuel L. Quezon III Oct 7, 2016
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