On December 30, 1965, the country commemorated the 69th anniversary of the execution of Dr. Jose Rizal. December 30 is a national holiday in the Philippines to honor its national hero, and the first Rizal Day was observed in 1898 through a decree of General Emilio Aguinaldo, the country’s first president.
Half a year before the observation of the first ever Rizal Day, the Philippines declared its independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, which gave birth to Asia’s first republic. It was a short-lived republic as the archipelago was eventually occupied and colonized by the United States.
Rizal Day’s main celebration is held at Rizal Park (Luneta) where the national hero’s monument is located. Despite the importance of this occasion, the Rizal Day celebrations of 1965 was overshadowed by another event that occurred a short walking distance from Rizal’s final resting place—the Quirino (formerly Independence) Grandstand. It was the inauguration of Ferdinand Edralin Marcos as the tenth president of the Philippines.
Manuel A. Roxas, the fifth Philippine President, was the third and last president of the Philippine Commonwealth and the first president of the Third Philippine Republic. He was the first president to take his oath at the newly built and appropriately named Independence Grandstand on July 4, 1946 which marked the country’s independence and the beginning of a new republic which literally rose from the ashes of war. His vice president, Elpidio Quirino, finished the remaining term of Roxas who died in office but he was inaugurated on Rizal Day after being elected president himself in 1949. The Rizal Day inauguration at the Luneta became a tradition which was followed until the inauguration of Marcos’ second term in 1969.
According to the government’s official gazette, “The Third Republic of the Philippines… marked the culmination of the peaceful campaign for Philippine Independence—the two landmarks of which were the enactment of the Jones Law in 1916 (in which the U.S. Congress pledged independence for the Philippines once Filipinos have proven their capability for self-government) and the Philippine Independence Act of 1934 (popularly known as Tydings-McDuffie) which put in place a ten-year transition period during which the Philippines had Commonwealth status. The Third Republic also marked the recognition by the global community of nations, of the nationhood of the Philippines—a process that began when the Commonwealth of the Philippines joined…the United Nations on June 14, 1942, receiving recognition as an Allied nation even before independence.”
As earlier stated, the First Philippine Republic, which was established upon the proclamation of the Malolos Constitution on January 22, 1899, did not last long; it was led by a revolutionary government engaged in war with two Western powers. Interestingly, Aguinaldo was the first Filipino leader to stay at Malacanang Palace, not as a resident but as a prisoner of the American military governor general.
The Second Philippine Republic (September 25, 1943 to February 2, 1944) was a government installed by the Empire of Japan during the Second World War. During this period, the Philippines had two presidents, Jose P. Laurel in Manila and Manuel L. Quezon in Washington DC, respectively heading a puppet government and a government in exile.
Thus, the Third Philippine Republic, though granted by its former colonial master that still exercised considerable political and economic influence over its former colony, nevertheless became the most viable and sustainable opportunity for self-determination and nation building. Freedom and democracy were slow, rigorous and challenging processes but aside from their own intrinsic values were the economic and socio-cultural benefits that came along.
It was during the third republic that the Philippines became only second to Japan economically. It was during the third republic that the Philippine media was considered as one of the freest in Asia and among developing nations. It was during that third republic that intelligent public discourse reached its zenith especially in Plaza Miranda and in the august halls of the Philippine senate with the likes of Claro Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Jose Diokno, Ninoy Aquino and Jovy Salonga.
It was far from perfect. There were problems then, not surprising for a new democracy to experience growing pains but considerable achievements and opportunities for progress were there.
All six presidents of the third republic all took their oath to preserve and defend the Philippine Constitution. Marcos, the only Philippine president to have won a second term, not only failed to preserve and defend the constitution, his declaration of martial law effectively killed the very republic he was sworn to serve and protect.
The Marcos years were not the Golden Age as historical revisionists and propagandists would like to portray. Quite the contrary, his regime stifled democracy, economic prosperity, political maturity and, despite having a wife who fancied herself as the patroness of the arts, the flourishing of culture and creative expression.
Like the white fences that were erected to conceal the slums of Metro Manila every time the conjugal dictatorship would host an international event, the so-called golden age has nothing more than a patina of artifice, fool’s gold if you will.
Those who condemn Martial Law would cite, rightfully, the atrocious human rights record, unprecedented plunder, corruption and crony capitalism, and so on. But often overlooked are the opportunity costs of such dastardly governance. Foremost of which is a promising republic nipped in the bud.
