The historic saga of the Nacionalista Party

Yesterday was the 143rd birth anniversary of Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. As our continuing tribute to a great man, we take another look at the saga of the NP, the party founded by Don Sergio and his good friend, Don Manuel L. Quezon.

The oldest political party in both the Philippines and in the entire Southeast Asia, the Nacionalista Party, was founded by a Cebuano, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., together with his Law school buddy and classmate, Quezon, on April 25, 1907. That was 114 years ago. In terms of ideology, it is right of center, and is conservative, nationalist, and populist. Its color is red and blue and it's emblem shows the Philippine flag. Its slogan is: “Ang Bayan, Higit sa Lahat" The country first and above all.

This is the party of presidents Manuel L. Quezon, Sergio Osmeña, Ramon Magsaysay, Carlos P. Garcia, and Ferdinand E. Marcos, before he destroyed the two-party system and founded the behemoth, the KBL or the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. Today its national president is former speaker and former Senate president Manuel Villar and its chairman is Senator Cynthia Villar, with congressman and former senator Alan Peter Cayetano as secretary-general. Right now, it has four out of 24 senators, 42 out of 304 members of the House of Representatives, eight out of 81 provincial governors, 11 out of 81 provincial vice governors and 116 out of 1,023 members of 81 provincial boards. It is no longer the dominant party but is still stronger than the Liberals.

The Marcoses claim that they are Nacionalistas. Actually, Marcos started as an LP member when he was congressman and then senator. He was promised by President Macapagal in 1961 that the latter would not run for reelection and would endorse Marcos as LP’s official candidate. But Macapagal broke his promise and Marcos forthwith bolted the LP and joined the NP. Poised at that time to run as NP standard bearer were Fernando Lopez of Iloilo and Emmanuel Pelaez of Misamis Oriental. Marcos snatched the NP convention by all sorts of tactics and schemes. The rest is history.

In 1936, the NP won the presidency when Quezon won with a 67.99% vote majority. That was repeated with a more resounding 81.78% victory in 1941. In 1946, Don Sergio Osmeña of NP lost by a slim margin to Manuel Roxas (a former NP who bolted and founded the LP). In 1949, the NP's Jose P. Laurel lost to LP's Elpidio Quirino. Laurel got only 37.2%2 in an election marred by too much terrorism. The NP's Ramon Magsaysay won back the presidency in 1953 with 68.90%, winning over his former boss, Elpidio Quirino, who earlier named him as defense secretary. The NP's Carlos P. Garcia won in 1957 with 41.23% plurality because there were two other bets, Manahan and Recto. Garcia got 44.95% in 1961 but lost to Diosdado Macapagal. Marcos, under NP, won over Macapagal in 1969 with a majority of 61.47% of the total votes.

Next year, if the NP puts up Bongbong Marcos to run against Sara Duterte, or Isko Moreno, or Manny Pacquiao, or even Leni Robredo of the LP, he may find it easier with multiple opponents. If it is one-on-one versus Leni, history may repeat the outcome of 2016. If Marcos the father was ousted by a widow, Marcos the son, may be defeated by another widow the second time around. The NP versus the LP will repeat the saga of history. It will be an exciting showdown once again. But the winner may not be either of them.