Jose Laurel's raw courage disclosed as envoys meet / Syjuco family: Artists all

At the forum of the Philippine Ambassadors Foundation headed by Ambassador Jose Macario Laurel IV, Deputy Alvaro Trejo was the guest speaker, having substituted for Ambassador Luis Arias Romero who was then in Spain.

Trejo was asked what transpired after Pope Alexander VI, at the 1692 Treaty of Tordesillas negotiations, drew a demarcation line over a globe he was holding, then declared that half of the world belonged to Spain and the other half, to Portugal.

Trejo was also asked to explain why the friars, at the onset of Spanish colonization, preferred to learn and forthwith preach in the native dialect(s) rather than teach the natives Spanish, this conduct drastically contrasting with Spain’s current “frenzied” enthusiasm to disseminate her language, claiming it is the second most widely spoken in the world.

The foregoing discussions were actually not half as interesting or intriguing as what my host, Ambassador Macario Laurel, told me during the lunch. He spoke about his grandfather, Jose P. Laurel, the supreme nationalist and patriot disclosing a grim period in his grandfather’s tenure as president during the Japanese Occupation.

Son of the Speaker and the oldest grandson of then President Laurel, Macario slept in his grandfather’s bedroom in Malacañang. (His grandmother, Mrs. Jose Laurel, adamantly refused to live in the Palace.)

Whenever President Laurel returned from a dinner or some other engagement, he would ask Macario to accompany him to the basement chapel, there to seek divine guidance.

The most crucial time came when the Japanese authorities pressured President Laurel to declare war on America and conscript the Filipino youth into the army. For three successive nights, President Laurel, Macario beside him, fervently prayed in the chapel, staying on his knees for hours. On the morning after the third night, President Laurel, his prayers having been answered, instructed the Palace guards not to allow entry to any Japanese visitor.

The reason was that over the radio, President Laurel had declared war on America — upon the ruthless insistence of the Japanese authorities — without, however, conscripting the Filipino youth. The declaration of war, meaningless without conscription, thus spared thousands of youthful lives from certain death.

I might add that during President Laurel’s confinement in prison shortly after Liberation, he was completely forsaken by highly placed government officials of the time. Even those he had saved from enemy atrocities had totally abandoned him. What irony!

Among those at the forum were Ambassadors Alfonso Yuchengco, Jose Romero, Jose Zaide, Jose M. Zaldarriaga, Rafael Gonzales, Dolly B. Sale, Juanito P. Jarasa, emcee, and DFA’s Emil F. Fernandez.

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The current exhibit “Full Circle: Creativity Moving Through Generations”, which runs till June 30 at the Yuchengco Museum, features the works of several families, among them the Syjucos. The incredibly talented family head Cesare A.X. Syjuco excels as painter, critic, poet, essayist and musician. He was the art critic of the Manila Times cultural page which I edited in the mid-80s. Cesare’s wife Jean-Marie, an eminent painter, often appears in performance art presentations.

Daughter Maxine is a poet; the rest of the children are exhibiting in “Full Circle”. Obviously, all of them have inherited their parents’ artistic genes, and are pursuing their chosen, albeit non-lucrative field with distinction.

On May 16, Jean Marie and Michelline, a jewelry designer, and Beatrix, a poet and performance artist, will be featured in a post-Mother’s Day episode in “Art 2 Art” along with the rest of the clan.

Other family teams in “Full Circle” are Anita, Doris and Robert Alexander Magsaysay Ho; Agustin, Abi and Anna Marie Goy; Salvacion and Lewis Lim Higgins; Betty and Kenneth Cobinpue.