HE could have been the president of our country had he played his cards well. Salvador Hidalgo Laurel, better known as Doy, was at the cusp of succeeding President Cory C. Aquino in
Malacañang as he was elected as her vice president in the snap election of 1986 where he and Cory C. Aquino, his standard bearer, claimed victory over Marcos and his running mate.
At the start of Cory’s administration, Doy was one of the most powerful government officials post Edsa. He concurrently held the posts of VP, Prime Minister and Secretary of Foreign Affairs—the only Filipino official to concurrently hold all three sensitive positions in our history. However, the position of prime minister was abolished on March 25, 1986. He was also appointed as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs by Cory where he made his mark representing our country in important international meetings, which were attended by heads of states. His official visit to China in 1986 was acknowledged by diplomatic observers as a milestone that displayed our maturing foreign policy and evolving foreign relations. However, his cordial relations with the president did not last long. The series of coups that disrupted Cory’s government drove a wedge between our two top leaders. Cory lost her trust in him and VP Doy resigned from the Cabinet 18 months after the Cory administration took control of the government. Doy kept his VP post but his fall from grace from Cory’s government precipitated the end of his illustrious political career. Some six decades earlier, his father Dr. Jose P. Laurel also resigned from Governor General Leonard Wood’s cabinet as Secretary of the Interior for nationalistic reasons, which triggered the cabinet crisis of 1923. But unlike Doy’s departure, Dr. Laurel won the hearts of his people who elected him to the Senate against a candidate fully supported by Manuel L. Quezon in the following election. A holder of a doctor of laws degree from Yale University, an academic distinction that Doy Laurel shared with his father later, Dr. Laurel excelled in lawmaking. He even caused the revision of the old and comprehensive Civil Code, which he deemed a relic of the past. Then he served as a delegate to the 1935 Constitutional Convention where he was recognized as one of its “wise men.” The older Laurel was a serious scholar that he compiled the papers and notes of the entire proceedings of the convention, which consisted of 24 tomes. He had planned to annotate and edit them after his work at the 1935 Constitution was completed, but he never got the time to do it. Doy was privy to this dream, which he finally undertook with passion after Dr. Laurel died in 1959. The 7-volume annotation was a labor of love out of a son’s piety to his father’s legal genius and opus.
Doy was a worthy son of a worthy father. Doy was destined for glory since his birth. Ninety three years ago, on November 18, 1928, Doy was born to Jose P. Laurel and Pacencia Hidalgo in Paco, Manila where the Laurels moved their residence after Dr. Laurel joined the government. The place was near the seats of government—Malacañang, Congress, Supreme Court, Manila City Hall, and a number of government buildings. It was near UP Faura, De La Salle, and other prominent schools. Doy initially took up pre-med at UP but he started winning oratorical and debating contests, even besting contestants from the law school. He also emerged as the intercollegiate champion orator and debater. His classmates observed that he was in the wrong course and even his professors advised him to shift to law. So he changed his course and the law had found no able advocate. After earning his law degree, he pursued and earned his masteral and doctoral degrees in law at Yale, just like his father.
With seven lawyers in the family, the Laurels set up their own law office with the patriarch as the senior partner. Doy engaged in active legal practice and was a most sought-after lawyer after winning cases for his clients. He also taught law in Lyceum using the Yale teaching method to encourage his students to do away with rote learning and think on their toes. Former SC Justice Roman Ozaeta of the Philippine Bar Association called on him to handle a case for free. It involved the killing of an indigent worker in Parañaque allegedly by an abusive cop. He succeeded in having the policeman convicted and it was followed by several other celebrated cases involving impoverished clients, which he personally attended. So he decided to form the Citizens Legal Assistance Committee under the Philippine Bar Association, which eventually mushroomed around the country with hundreds of lawyers volunteering their free services. With its success, the CLAC became the Citizens Legal Aid Society of the Philippines, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing free legal services to the poor. In 1976, Doy Laurel was awarded the “Most Outstanding Legal-Aid Lawyer of the World” in Stockholm, Sweden by the International Bar Association.
He was elected senator in 1967, placing fourth after Jose Roy, Ninoy Aquino, the only LP who made it to the magic 8, and Magnolia Antonino, a substitute for her husband Gaudencio who perished in a helicopter crash on the eve of the election. He sponsored several justice-for-the-poor legislation, which were all enacted into laws, with the help of two young idealistic lawyers in his Senate staff, Attys. Enrique Voltaire Garcia and Edcel Lagman.
Laurel was one of the most popular politicians of our country during his time. For over a quarter of a century starting during Marcos presidency, he served in the Senate and the Batasang Pambansa. When Martial Law was declared, Doy fearlessly spoke against the evils of the regime. He risked his life and comforts to encourage his countrymen to oppose the dictatorship. With Ninoy in exile in the US joined by other anti-Marcos elements, Doy organized UNIDO to oppose the unwanted regime. With the death of Ninoy and Senator Gerry Roxas, Doy became the president of UNIDO and the preeminent leader of the opposition. UNIDO proclaimed Doy as its presidential candidate against Marcos in the snap election in 1986. However, Cory decided to join the contest and declared herself available for the presidency. So as not to divide the votes and keep the opposition united, Doy gave way and agreed to be Cory’s running mate. And the rest is now history. Doy Laurel was the rightful challenger to President Marcos as he was the acknowledged leader of the opposition party against the Marcos regime. He gave up his presidential ambition and opted to make the supreme sacrifice for the sake of his country and his people. He thought that he could win the presidency after Cory’s term, but he was unsuccessful in 1992. In 1986, it was his time but he let it pass. I have said before and I say it again that in politics, you don’t choose the time; time chooses you.
In this election, we need a Doy Laurel who is willing to sacrifice his lifetime’s dream for the sake of unity and greater chance for victory for the opposition at the polls. Who will it be?