Easter for the politics of Old Cebu

In less than 20 days, the whole nation shall vote. What is the quality of our politics today compared to the yesteryears?

- 

In the olden times in Cebu, you were either an Osmeñista or a Nacionalista or a Cuencoista, Liberal. The Osmeñas and Cuencos were like water and oil. Their followers ambushed and killed each other.

When I say Old Cebu, I refer to the era after the 1946 Philippine independence up to Martial Law. I don’t claim to venture farther than 1901 up to July 4, 1946. Manuel Roxas of Capiz of the newly-founded Liberal Party defeated Cebu’s grand old man, Don Sergio Osmeña Sr., founder of the Nacionalista Party. Roxas died in office and was replaced by his vice president Elpidio Quirino.

Quirino, a Liberal, was defeated in 1953, by his own Defense secretary, Ramon Magsaysay, who turned Nacionalista. But Magsaysay died in a 1957 plane crash in Cebu, and was replaced by his vice president from Talibon, Bohol, Carlos P. Garcia. Garcia won his own term but his second attempt was defeated in 1961 by Diosdado Macapagal, a Liberal from Pampanga, father of GMA. Marcos, a newly-recruited Nacionalista, defeated Macapagal in 1965. Marcos also defeated Serging Osmeña, a Liberal, in 1969, in one of the bloodiest and dirtiest elections in Philippine history.