Manuel L. Quezon III Profile picture
Columnist .@inquirerdotnet Editor at large https://t.co/4uQBAnr0sc. Views mine.

Nov 19, 2021, 14 tweets

Just a note on the Dutertes and the Marcoses, based on the interesting book by Earl Parreño (a thread)

The President's father, associated himself with Sotero Cabahug and his brother Tosong who were appointed Sec. of Public Works and Acting Governor of Cebu respectively by President Osmeña in 1945. Vicente Duterte was appointed acting Mayor of Danao, Cebu.

The vice-mayor of Vicente Duterte was Luis Almendras, uncle of Alejandro Almendras who would become a political kingpin in Mindanao.

With the defeat of Osmeña by Roxas in 1946, Duterte would lose his position by 1947. Vicente Duterte engaged in copra buying in Cabadbaran and in 1949 the Duranos edged out the Almendrases in Danao. In the political wilderness, The Almendrases shifted to Davao.

By 1951 Alejandro Almendras had succesfully won the governorship of Davao province as a Nacionalista; he invited Vicente Duterte to join him in Davao as a lawyer and adviser. Almendras would prove adept at aligning himself with the national leadership of the NP.

Almendras would end up appointed by Pres. Garcia in 1958 as Secretary of the newly-created Department of General Services, with Vicente Duterte made Acting Governor of Davao; by 1959, Almendras was a senator, and Vicente Duterte had run for, and won, governorship of Davao.

By 1961 relations between Almendras and Duterte were deteriorating but Vicente won re-election in 1963. In 1964 Almendras helped Marcos secure the Senate Presidency and the Nacionalista nomination for the presidency. FM asked Almendras to be his Mindanao campaign manager in '65.

In 1966 President Marcos appointed Duterte to the Department of General Services (which Almendras had held a decade before: this suggested a path to the Senate) but he wasn't nominated by the NP to run for the Senate. But Davao had been divided into 3 new provinces.

Vicente Duterte wanted to run for congressman; Marcos offered to make him Mindanao campaign manager and spare him from a Cabinet revamp; Duterte insisted on running; FM gave his support to another candidate for the NP nomination. Duterte ran anyway as an independent.

Almendras publicly declared support for Duterte but Duterte would become convinced he was betrayed. Marcos threw his support behind Duterte's opponent. Duterte lost and three months after his defeat, in 1968, Duterte died. Soledad Duterte would be become famously anti-Marcos.

But the President's mother, though she became a Cory Crusader for the Snap Elections, would also withdraw her support. On December 28, 1990, she made a public statement launching the "Cory Resign" movement, calling on herto resign and hand over power to Vice-President Laurel.

The story of how Duterte became a fiscal, and then was appointed OIC Vice-Mayor, and then Mayor, is interestingly told in the book. /end

In all of the above, after the initial appointment by Aquino, RRD wasn’t of that alignment; he not only ran against the Cory candidate, he received the support of Alejandro Almendras and recall, he himself became a member of the RAM-affiliated Guardians scmp.com/news/asia/sout…

The moral of the tale is, the President will pragmatically align himself even with his father's enemies to help himself. But he doesn't forget and if collides with his plans (like wanting his daughter to run for president) he will act against them eventually.

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