IT is not unusual for men raised in adjacent towns to compete in big-time politics in the same election cycle. Lubao-born and Lubao-raised Diosdado Macapagal ran and won the presidency in 1961, while Gil J. Puyat ran and lost in the vice presidential race that same year. When your surname is Puyat, you can trace your roots to only one town, Guagua, Pampanga. Lubao and Guagua not only share physical boundaries. They are two of the most two most intertwined towns in the country.

In the previous election cycle – 1957 – Macapagal won the vice presidency while Puyat topped the senatorial elections. Which paved the way for Puyat getting drafted as the NP VP candidate in 1961. It was painful for the people of the two towns, that have existed in amity through centuries, to see their most promising national leaders run under competing parties and slam each other. Macapagal was a die-hard LP and Puyat was NP all the way. Never the twain shall meet.

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