I was also looking into the link between the abolition of bloc voting and the rise of celebrity politicians, using the same thesis as yours. Considering that the practice was abolished in 1951, and de la Rosa was elected in 1957, or the fourth election after, I found the lack of temporal contiguity problematic to the justification of the thesis.
You have to tie several dots together. Starting with the purpose of bloc voting: to do, informally, through parties, what would otherwise we impossible if it were every candidate for himself: balance tickets according to geography and seniority. So you look at how parties dictates the slates prior to 1951. Then you look at the tell-tale signs after bloc voting was removed and it became every man for himself. Look at Recto, look at Tanada. Only then do you look at the parallel rise of de la Rosa: so it becomes more of a pure popularity exercise as the party discipline, cohesion, and resources, degrade. You fast forward to the post-EDSA elections when the parties were really totally shadows of themselves and could no longer muster the resources (and the votes) to deliver victory and the counterpoint: the rise of celebrity and monied candidates.
I was also looking into the link between the abolition of bloc voting and the rise of celebrity politicians, using the same thesis as yours. Considering that the practice was abolished in 1951, and de la Rosa was elected in 1957, or the fourth election after, I found the lack of temporal contiguity problematic to the justification of the thesis.
You have to tie several dots together. Starting with the purpose of bloc voting: to do, informally, through parties, what would otherwise we impossible if it were every candidate for himself: balance tickets according to geography and seniority. So you look at how parties dictates the slates prior to 1951. Then you look at the tell-tale signs after bloc voting was removed and it became every man for himself. Look at Recto, look at Tanada. Only then do you look at the parallel rise of de la Rosa: so it becomes more of a pure popularity exercise as the party discipline, cohesion, and resources, degrade. You fast forward to the post-EDSA elections when the parties were really totally shadows of themselves and could no longer muster the resources (and the votes) to deliver victory and the counterpoint: the rise of celebrity and monied candidates.