Diosdado P. Macapagal’s 91st birth anniversary

Tomorrow will mark the 91st birthday anniversary of Diosdado P. Macapagal, fifth President of the Philippine Republic. He is best remembered as "The Incorruptible" for he used his years in government to serve the people and not to enrich himself. He was also the "Great Champion of the Common Man" and definitely "The Father of Land Reform." It was in January 1963 that, in his State of the Nation Address, he asked Congress to enact the Land Reform Law that abolished tenancy, which was signed into law seven months later.

But it was during martial law that Macapagal truly showed that he was not just a fair-weather statesman. He fought the Marcos dictatorship by openly publishing his book Democracy in the Philippines, originally titled Marcos Dictatorship in the Philippines. The book was published simultaneously in the Philippines, United States and Canada. Here, directly quoted from the book, is how its publication was effected:

"On arrival in New York, I phoned my former Labor Secretary Bernardino Abes, who was an exile in Canada, an able and trustworthy associate, to come. I asked him to read the manuscript, after which he said that it was what the freedom fighters abroad needed but warned that I would be prosecuted for its publication. I assured him that I was aware of the risk and was ready for it for the sake of the country. He undertook to publish it and he would take care of raising the needed funds.

"Back in Manila, I gave my copy to Senator Gerardo Roxas, President of the Liberal Party (LP), for him to read and give his reaction. After he had a chance to read all of it, he told me that he would be glad to publish the book at his expense, but warned that I would get into trouble with Marcos with its publication; and I gave the same remark that I told Abes in New York about being ready to face any danger for the cause of liberation against tyranny.

"Roxas informed me that the printing would be finished and the first one thousand copies delivered on March 31, 1976. This writer asked him to deliver them at the residence of Vice-President Abraham Sarmiento of the 1971 Constitutional Convention (now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court). On that day, I went to Sarmiento’s place and he mobilized his sons and daughter to carry out my request that the one thousand copies be delivered to the persons designated by me on that day. A copy was delivered to Malacañang for President Marcos through a lawyer. While in the Sarmiento residence, I received a call from Mrs. Macapagal informing that two agents of the Defense Department had gone to our house at Cambridge Circle in Makati inquiring if I had already been arrested."

Marcos never dared arrest Diosdado Macapagal. This was because he knew that Macapagal was ready to die for his convictions.

We hope that the Gloria Macapagal administration will be a fulfillment of the Diosdado P. Macapagal Regime.