I scanned the papers the other day but there was no mention at all about the 124th birthday anniversary of the 4th President of the Republic of the Philippines, Carlos P. Garcia. Garcia was born on November 4, 1896 in Talibon, Bohol. He was a poet, teacher, orator, and guerilla leader during the war. He started his law studies in Silliman University but he transferred to the Philippine Law School where he earned his law degree.
He topped the bar examination in 1923 but instead of practicing law right away, he taught as a public school teacher at Bohol Provincial High School for a couple of years. After a brief practice of law, he entered politics. He never lost an election except when he ran for a second term as President of the Philippines in 1961 against Diosdado Macapagal. He even won as a delegate of his province to the 1971 Constitutional Convention and was elected as its first president, defeating another former president of the Philippines, Diosdado Macapagal, for the position. But he died shortly thereafter and Macapagal eventually succeeded him as the president of the said body.
Garcia was elected for 3 terms as a Congressman representing the 3rd District of Bohol. He ran as Governor of his province and served for 3 terms. Before the outbreak of the 2nd World War, Garcia was elected as a Senator in 1941 and served in that body with distinction for 13 years. As a member of the opposition, he was an effective fiscalizer of the ruling Liberal Party under President Manuel A. Roxas and President Elpidio Quirino. He even served as the Minority Leader of the Senate from 1946 to 1951. He refused to collaborate with the Japanese government and instead organized a guerilla unit, which operated in his province. In 1952, Garcia was tapped as the running mate of Ramon Magsaysay who ran for president. After their victory, Garcia concurrently served in Magsaysay’s cabinet as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. It was a well-earned appointment since he was recognized as a foreign policy expert for the government. As the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, he successfully negotiated the reparations agreement between the Philippines and Japan which opened up a new era in the relations between the two countries. This is not to mention the significant contributions that the reparation payment made to our economy. The posh real-estate properties in Tokyo (Roppongi property), Nempeidai and Kobe are part of these reparation payments. He also served as Chairman of the 8-nation Southeast Asian Security Conference held in September 1954 in Manila, which created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). He was the architect behind the improvement of the Philippine-American relations and closer ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors. When Magsaysay died in a plane crash in 1957, Garcia assumed the presidency. He won the presidency in his own right in the 1957 elections beating formidable opponents such as Claro M. Recto, Jose P. Yulo, and Manuel Manahan, but his running mate, Jose “Pepito” Laurel, lost to Diosdado Macapagal. He adopted the Filipino First Policy, the centerpiece of his administration, which was designed to ensure Philippine economic independence and sovereignty. In a speech on March 3, 1960, he pledged to remove “the yoke of alien domination, particularly Americans, in business, trade, commerce and industry.” He stressed the need for total economic freedom and declared that the government would no longer tolerate the dominance of foreign interest in our economy. Garcia also introduced an austerity program in government to help do away with graft and corruption and eliminate wanton waste of government resources.
Garcia’s strong pro-Filipino stance in business and trade was looked upon with disfavor by the American businesses. This partly led to his defeat when he ran for reelection in 1961. Unlike his predecessors, Manuel A. Roxas and Ramon Magsaysay, Garcia did not enjoy the backing of the Americans. When he won a second term, it was largely due to his political machinery and the support of local businessmen who benefited from his program of economic nationalism.
Garcia, likewise, did not enjoy Magsaysay’s magic since another rival candidate, Manuel Manahan, who formed a political party together with the other bright boys of the well-loved deceased president, claimed Magsaysay’s legacy. He was not also an anointed candidate of any religious group who at that time had started to exert influence in our political life. Relatively, Garcia was his own man and was not beholden to anyone, particularly the foreigners. In no uncertain terms, he told his audience at a dinner at the Manila Overseas Press Club that “the ugly truth but incontrovertible fact about our economy today is its dominance by aliens. This situation is unique for there is perhaps no other independent country in the world where alien control of economic life is as wide and pervasive as in ours. Reduced to stark realities, such a condition makes a mockery of our independence and robs it of substance and meaning.” Such prophetic and brave words from a former president whose birth anniversary is not even remembered by his fellow Filipinos.