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The elder Laurel’s defeat in the 1949 elections neither made him more temperamental nor did he lose his sense of humor. He had refused to abet an uprising in Batangas, and he told his friends that he was now “a canto boy.”

He became the most popular speaker, appearing twice a month for the next two years at forums, convocations, college commencements, business conventions and monthly meetings of the Rotary and Kiwanis clubs.

He hastened construction of a wooden two-story summer house in Baguio City on a lot on Assumption Road that he had bought earlier.Late December of 1949, he took his entire family, including married sons, wives and children in the Pines City.

This time, he felt sure that he would win for two reasons:

•the new Secretary of Defense, Ramon Magsaysay, a guerrilla leader from Zambales province, would have military troops oversee the balloting such that the “special policemen”

In 1951, he decided to run for the Senate.

• and goons of the administration would be stopped from doing “shenanigans,” while the creation of the National Movement for Free Elections or NAMFREL, funded generously by the Central Intelligence Agency of the Americans, would supervise the precincts to make elections “as clean as possible” by seeing the counting of ballots was properly done.

In 1949, the Liberals had made a clean sweep of the senatorial elections with Quintin Paredes of Abra who polled 1,756,898 votes, 1,570,590 voted for Lorenzo Tanada in 1947. But Laurel this time got 2,143,452 votes, some 250,000 more than second placer Gil J. Puyat of Pampangga.

All winners wereNacionalistas

His eldest son, Pepito, who ran for the House in the third District of Batangas, moved up in the number of votes he had received from 22,549 to 35,779 in 1953.In 1961 and 1965 Pepito got 42, 063 and 43,408 votes, while his opponent Rafael Recto (son of Don Claro) polled in 1961 half of what he had gotten.

When Pepito, as three-time Speaker of the House, aspired for the vice-presidency under the re-electionist President Carlos P. Garcia in 1957 to oppose Liberal candidate Diosdado Macapagal, he lost by about 400,000 votes.

He attributed his defeat to his having authored and sponsored the Retail Trade Nationalization Act of 1955, and as a result thousands of Chinese sari-sari store owners contributed heavily to the Pampango’s money chest.

He was again elected Speaker of the House during his last term until President Marcos padlocked Congress in 1972.In 1984 he won a seat in the Batasang Pambansa while the country was under martial law.

Among the honors Pepito had received were the Order of Diplomatic Merit fromSouth Korea in 1968, the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan in 1985, and the Order of Kalantiao from the Philippines in 1986.In 1986 he was appointed to the Constitutional Commission by President Aquino.

Pepe, the second oldest son, after graduating from the Imperial Military Academy of Tokyo in 1938, got his Bachelor of Laws degree from the Manuel L. Quezon University 11 years later in 1949.

The third son, Teroy, graduated from the U.P. Law School the year before the war, and while in the United States as the Secretary of Vice- President Osmeña enroled a Harvard Graduate School of Law.He returned in 1946 to Cambridge, Masachusetts, to get his doctorate degree two years later.

Maning took up law after their return from Japan, and got his doctorate from Madrid University.

Doy, was a law graduate from the state university after he had shifted from medicine to law.

The youngest, Dodjie, finished law and became known as the “fastest Filipino on wheels,” winning the Macao Grand Prix twice and dying on his bid to gain it for the third time in 1967.

Mama Laurel wanted all her sons to join her husband in a firm to be known as the Laurel Law Office. She didn’t want to have her children to have separate law offices, because “they’ll end up fighting each other in court, and I don’t want to see that happen.”

She had bought with her own money the vacant lot in the walled city near that occupied by the San Juan De Dios Hospital, at the corner of Real and Solana streets, and then in 1953 put up a large concrete building of two stories with a mezzanine.

Dr. Laurel, of course, was the senior partner with Pepito, Pepe, Teroy, Maning and Doy as junior partners.

Fat retainer fees came in.

Doy, for example, won a case for the Magdalena Estate of Mrs. Magdalena Hemady, absolving it from the War Profits Tax charge, and was paid P200,000.

All the Laurel males, starting with the father, except Doy, had eloped. Some of them contracted a civil marriage before undergoing the Catholic Ceremony.

The three girls, of course, got properly married in church, probably because Nati (who married Leon Guinto Jr.), Rose (Mrs. Jesus Avanceña), and Nita (Mrs. Gary Yupangco) ─ called the three Marias of the Family ─ graduate from Scholastica’s College and their Mama kept strict watch their social activities.

They had recovered the piano de cola or grand piano and had bought another. The sisters who had learned to play the piano while in college, often gave recitals for their parents and members of the family, or while entertaining some local friends after dinner.

“Father and Mother were strict disciplinarians,” recalled Teroy, “but with a difference. If we stayed out late, he impressed on us that we still had to comply with our duties. One stern look from him was enough to silence or discipline us. On the other hand, when we boys went a-courting, he was understanding. Mother was not. She was overly protective and did not approve of our going out to socialize.”

Whenever their Mama would prohibit them from attending certain parties, they would appeal to their father who would invariably say, “your mother’s decisions, like those of the Supreme Court, are final.” So they stopped appealing to their papa─ but continued adoring him.

“As father’s public responsibilities grew,” remembered Rose, “he wanted the time spent with us full of fun and affection. He encouraged family outings which bred togetherness and a fierce family loyalty for which our family even today is well-known. Our picnics to Pansol in Laguna province (near Los Baños) to bathe in the warm suphur springs are among the most memorable recollections of our childhood.”

 In 1952 Nacionalista leaders approached Laurel to run for the presidential elections the following year.

But the Senator said he was no longer interested in politics.

So when Manuel “Dindo” Gonzales, older brother of Luis, the husband of Vicky Quirino, asked him if he would accept the candidacy of Ramon Magsaysay, who was still Secretary of Defense but would join the opposition, he was noncommittal until Dindo told him that the army would support Magsaysay rather than the incumbent President.

Apparently the two friends had greeted that Recto would support Laurel in 1949, and if Laurel lost, he would back up Recto in the succeeding presidential elections.

Convincing Recto was a more difficult task, for Don Claro believed that with the victory of their party in 1951 he had a good chance of winning.

He did not expect the Americans through the CIA to underwrite his campaign, and he doubted if they would resurrect NAMFREL.

The lack of these two factors would considerably hurt his candidacy.

The CIA even thought of distributing defective rubber condoms to have the married people vote against him.

When Pelaez and Dindo said that he might be killed while campaigning by some person or group who did not like his nationalist attitude, Recto finally agreed to support Magsaysay.

On Nov.16 at his house in Pasay, Recto affixed his signature to a written agreement together with Magsaysay as the official candidate of the Nacionalista party a year hence.

Although the document was kept secret, news somehow leaked out, and an irate Apo Pidiong told reporters that his Secretary of Defense knew “nothing about affairs of state, or how to conduct them,” and all he was good for was “killing Huks.”

Magsaysay on March 1, 1953 resigned from the cabinet.Eight days later, as hundreds of friends trooped to the Peñafrancia home of Laurel, he announced publicly for the first time the choice of Magsaysay as the opposition candidate for President of the Philippines despite murmured objections from the Senator’s die-hard supporters.

Laurel confessed to his friends: “ I looked around for a man in my party who possessed all the qualifications of Magsaysay, and found none. So he was the choice.”

Three days later, the party was held its national convention at the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel, and Laurel nominated RM as the group’s candidate.

“I am representing to you Ramon Magsaysay,” said Laurel a voice ringing with emotion, “the choice of the Nacionalista party, the symbol of unity and vigor of the party. He represents Juan De La Cruz.He belongs to the masses; he is identified with the masses;he is fighting for the masses. He is no longer the Congressman from Zambales; he is no longer the Secretary of Defense;he is no longer an official of the administration; but he is now one who symbolizes the manhood of Andres Bonifacio, the courage of General Gregorio Del Pilar, the wisdom of Dr.Jose Rizal, and the bravery of Richard Lionhearted.”

Needless to add, America loosened its purse strings in the person of Col. Ed Lansdale, who often accompanied RM as he toured the provinces.

The 1953 elections proved to be a landslide victory for the opposition. Magsaysay garnered 2,912,992 votes to Quirino’s 1,313,991, or a difference of one and a half million votes.Five the lower House the opposition difference was 58 to 31 Representatives. Amang Rodriguez became the Senate President, while Pepito Laurel became the Speaker of the House

Dr. Laurel was content with the results of the elections, and he felt could relax by taking care of the numerous legal cases, that had been dumped on his law office after he had lost the election four years ago.

He was also interested in pushing the establishment of a bank in the metropolis and in founding the Lyceum of the Philippines. But several months after the new administration had settled down, he received a presidential appointment to head an economic mission to Washington, D.C.

THANKS! Reported by:

Jeric Panganiban

Nichole Obillo

Cj Maranan

1. In 1955, JPL decided to run for the Senate.

2. All winners were Nacionalistas.

3. Rose, the second oldest son, after graduating from the Imperial Military Academy of Tokyo in 1938, got his Bachelor of Laws degree from the Manuel L. Quezon University 11 years later in 1949.

4. The third son, Teroy, graduated from the U.P. Law School the year before the war.

5. Doy, was a law graduate from the state university after he had shifted from medicine to law.

6. The youngest, Dodjie, finished law and became known as the “fastest Filipino on wheels,”

7. In 1952 Nacionalista leaders approached Laurel to run for the presidential elections the following year.

8. Four days later, the party was held its national convention at the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel, and Laurel nominated RM as the group’s candidate.

9. JPL became the most popular speaker.

10. Doy had refused to abet an uprising in Batangas, and he told his friends that he was now “a canto boy.”

1. FALSE2. TRUE3. FALSE4. TRUE5. TRUE6. TRUE7. TRUE8. FALSE9. TRUE10.FALSE

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