SUNDAY STORIES
Marlen V. Ronquillo
The best advice ever given to the Aquino government came recently, which can be distilled in a single sentence. “Spend, use the fiscal arsenal, because growth cannot be attained by the
monetary tools alone.” It came from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor, Amando Tetangco, whose nickname is not drawn from his first name – as is the practice in Apalit, Pampanga and elsewhere in the province.
Kids named for saints in Pampanga, which celebrates Pampanga Day today, Dec. 11, are routinely given nicknames that are pure profanity – and are therefore unprintable – or are not derivatives of their first names. Many of them grow up well despite their sordid nicknames, some rising up to being counselors to presidents and leaders. Or, some grow up to be leaders themselves such as tycoon Manny Pangilinan, who is a town mate of Tetangco.
Better, they grow up to be presidents, as in the father and daughter presidencies of Diosdado Macapagal and Gloria Arroyo.
We from the town of Lubao are all very proud of the late DM, whose rise from an enclave of tuberculosis-stricken people to the presidency, remains the greatest and the most inspiring story of meritocracy in the country.
As Pampangueños take stock of their province today and make an honest assessment of what the legacy of their province to nation-building is, they can cite things other than longevity. Pampanga, we all know, was part of the old civilization . The main driver was geography. After Manila became the center of everything, Bulacan and Pampanga naturally became the next center of trade and culture and everything else that has something to do with development.
The rays of the Philippine flag suggest that the region that flourished first was what Ka Blas Ople fondly called a Tagalog-Pampango empire, which was also the region that first stood up against Spain and provided the leaders for the first Philippine Revolution. Not only the leaders, according to Ka Blas, but the poets and bards of the revolution as well.
What is the thing that Pampangueños can be proud of other than being part of the country’s first flourishing civilization? The answer is this: the province has consistently turned out people who have been part of the national conversation, if not the main actors in the national conversation and drama themselves. Like I said earlier, the soundest advice to President Aquino, related to eking out growth amid a global economic meltdown, was the one from Say Tetangco. If there is any sound roadmap on how to beat the crisis, it is using the fiscal tools to stimulate the economy. This runs against the conventional wisdom of adopting brutal austerity, which is the dominant tack of leaders on both sides of the Atlantic.
Nothing can better illustrate this awesome gift of the province to participate in the national conversation than two brothers from the ancient times—assessed and analyzed from within the context of the current national headlines. These are the brothers Jose and Pedro Abad Santos.
And the current headlines are about chief justices and the lingering issue of redistributing Hacienda Luisita.
Jose Abad Santos was the chief justice of the Commonwealth government. When President Quezon left the country to lead a government in exile, he named Jose Abad Santos acting Philippine president. Captured by the Japanese, he was offered what ordinary mortals would have taken without missing a beat – collaboration with the Japanese.
The chief justice said no. On the day of his execution, he told his son Jose Jr., this: It is an honor to die for one’s country. Not everybody has that chance.”
We all know what people think of some high court justices today: supplicants to presidents, pliant, submissive etc.
We all know the highest form of bravery that can ever be displayed by justices today: being silent amid a presidential rant.
Then we think of Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos and his martyrdom.
Yet to Pedro Abad Santos, an unrepentant revolutionary, his younger brother Jose failed to live up to his expectations of greatness.
In 1939, Pedro, then a key leader of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas or PEKAPE, accused his brother Jose, then secretary of justice, of not doing enough to address the judicial system’s bias for the landlords and the feudal structure that had kept tenants, or landless tillers, in perpetual bondage.
The occasion was a public assembly in their hometown of San Fernando wherein President Quezon laid out his agrarian justice programs. In front of Quezon himself, Pedro accused Jose of not doing something to push the courts into rendering true justice to the peasantry.
Jose, with all his reputation for integrity and probity, was publicly accused by his eldest brother of doing nothing for agrarian justice in the presence of the Philippine president. Several of my forefathers where there, who told and retold the encounter to every generation, and who spoke of the name Pedro Abad Santos with deep respect and appreciation.
That incident in San Fernando during the Commonwealth period — the brothers Abad Santos with the president to discuss a burning social justice issue - was a feature of most presidencies. Every generation of leaders hired Pampangueños into their official family. And every administration featured a Pampangueño dissenter – either from above ground or from the underground. Marcos, an Ilocano, ironically hired the most, as most of his justice secretaries, Ricardo Puno, Vicente Abad Santos and Estelito Mendoza, were from Pampanga.
But the most famous trouble shooter for presidents the Pampango-speaking region ever turned out was one raised in a Tarlac town that used to be part of the old Pampanga. Before that young man, Benigno Aquino Jr, became a senator himself and the greatest president the country never had. He was married to a former president and is the father, and namesake, of the incumbent president.
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