ARSENIO H. LACSON AS JOURNALIST, POLITICIAN (Second of Three Parts)

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

(Nota Bene: After the first installment, some netizens commented that my three part series on Arsenio H. Lacson, former Manila mayor, was creating excitement for them. Pardon me, dear folks, just to be honest, it’s not my intention to create unnecessary excitement. On the contrary, it’s my fervent wish to create a more balanced presentation of what I could consider a unique and exceptional character named Arsenio H. Lacson.

Lacson certainly looms a bigger than life persona in our political horizon. His life has many details and colors. Netizens may not see other important details, milestones, and colors if I would write a long, single feature article about him. Netizens may just focus on three important characters: Imelda Marcos, Imee Marcos, and, of course, actress Charito Solis. Judging the initial reactions on the first installment, I could smell an inordinate interest on those three characters.

Lacson’s career spanned for almost 14 years. He was first elected as member of Congress representing the second district of Manila in 1949, and as Manila mayor in 1951, 1955, and 1959. Hence, he was undefeated as a politician. As a politician, Lacson stood tall for a number of advocacy and positions on burning issues of those days.

Incidentally, the Amador F. Brioso Jr., author of the biography book “Arsenio H. Lacson of Manila,” which happens to be the source of my posts, is my friend here in Facebook. Netizens, who wish to know some more details about Lacson’s life, could direct questions to him. His FB account is Jun Brioso. Because he is the author, he is more qualified to answer your questions.)

(Second of three parts)

DAYS after the treacherous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Japan’s subsequent occupation of the Philippines, Arsenio H. Lacson resigned his post at the Department of Justice and went jobless to his hometown of Talisay in Negros Occidental. Soon he joined the Free Philippines, a secret guerilla organization, and did intelligence works. He also joined the Allied Intelligence Bureau, which was organized in 1942 by American, Australian, Dutch, and British military officers.

Soon, he was back in Manila doing intelligence works for the Allied forces. He was among the Filipino operatives, who did works for the American liberation forces. He was the lead scout for the 1^st Cavalry Division, which fought the Japanese forces in Manila. He was also among the scouts for the American forces which went after the retreating Japanese forces in the Naguillian Trail and Baguio City. Hence, he was among the recognized guerilla leaders.

Amador F. Brioso Jr.’s 356-page biography book, simply titled “Arsenio H. Lacson of Manila,” discusses Lacson’s intertwining, albeit, overlapping journalistic and political careers in the postwar era. From the ashes of the last world war, Lacson, always brash and irreverent but never cowardly, rebuilt his life by writing commentaries first on the shortlived Philippines Press in 1945 and next on the Philippine Liberty News in 1946. Henceforth, he gained prominence as a hard-hitting, uncompromising opinion writer, who never wavered to criticize the political gods of those days, including the likes of Manuel Roxas and Elpidio Quirino.

Brioso described his journalistic ways in the following words: “Lacson would take on anyone and anything. He launched tirades against the high and mighty. He ridicule (sic) any character, who took his fancy. His style, his language is pure Lacsonesque (sic): profanity-laced, rough, replete with ungrammatical niceties, fraught with flowery prose. And the subjects he covered ranged from the powerful to the not-so-powerful, the mundane to the inane, the filthy and the unsoiled.

“It was the start of a new Lacson – as the tough and fiery newspaperman, Lacson the fightingiest (sic) columnist, Lacson the Arsenic.”

Lacson opposed the Bell Trade Act, which the Americans rammed into the Filipinos’ collective throat to provide equal rights to U.S. entrepreneurs as Filipinos’, saying it was a “big joke” and its acceptance by the Roxas government a “sellout.” He did not spare U.S. point man Paul McNutt from his criticisms, as he took notice of his machinations to include in the U.S.-initiated Philippine Rehabilitation Act, a provision which tied U.S. postwar aid to the approval of the Bell Trade Act. In fact, American leaders mistook Lacson for being anti-American.

While he assailed Roxas, Col. Manuel dela Fuente, chief of Manila Police, and other ranking public officials his published commentaries, Lacson started his weekly radio broadcasting job in 1946. But he took less than a year in his radio job as Roxas maneuvered to have him eased out mainly because of his incessant attacks on the president. His dismissal from the job somehow revealed the dynamics inherent in radio business. Roxas also instigated the closure of Philippine Liberty News, where Lacson wrote a weekly column that contained attacks against the president.

On his Sept. 21, 1947 radio broadcast, Lacson made an expose alleging that first lady Trinidad Roxas could have misused the P500,000, which she raised for war widows and orphans.  This angered the president, who asked Col. Andres Soriano to remove Lacson from the air within 24 hours mainly to prevent him from touching the same issue in his next broadcast. This caused embarrassment to Soriano, prompting him to ask Lacson to see Judge Mamerto Roxas, the president brother. Lacson refused and he was out of job by the following week. But Roxas was publicly criticized for his controversial acts against Lacson.

For a while, Lacson was jobless. Soon, Sen. Vicente Madrigal hired him as the public relations man of his private firm, Madrigal & Co. But Lacson was not happy with the job that required him to do a lot of backslapping. Six months later, he was back in his element, when he started writing a column for The Star Reporter. That was on April 15, 1948, or two days before Roxas had a massive heart attack that led to his death and Quirino’s assumption of the presidency. By that time, Lacson did not have a Roxas, who used to his power to ease him out of his job as journalist.

Brioso did not lose track of doing a narrative about Lacson’s subsequent meeting with Quirino, who immediately clamored for a dialogue with him. In their meeting at Malacanang, Quirino did not hesitate to remind Lacson that, although he could criticize him for misdoings or underperformance, He could only do it to certain extent.

“I am still the president” Quirino told Lacson. It was the sentence that he heard a dozen times in his conversation with Quirino. In the end, Quirino offered him the job to go after the corrupt officials in his government. Unlike Roxas, who unabashedly suppressed his radio program, Quirino allowed Lacson to continue his weekly radio broadcast provided that Soriano would allow him. The owner refused.

In his weekly column, Lacson did not stop to lampoon Quirino, calling him various names and assailing the presidential decisions, which did not meet his standards and expectations. By March, 1949, Lacson quit writing for The Star Reporter, as he prepared for a political career. By November, 1949, he was elected as member of the House of Representatives. It was his first try in politics.

Lacson’s entry in politics to represent Manila’s second district composed of Binondo, San Nicolas, Quiapo, and Sta. Cruz, was not without difficulties. First, he defeated Manila councilor Joaquin Yuseco in the convention of the Nacionalista Party. Then, he won over Valeriano Fugoso, the Liberal Party candidate. During those days, the country had a two party-system dominated by the Nacionalista and Liberal parties.

Despite his election as a congressman, Lacson continued writing for The Star Reporter, becoming his forum to air his views as an elected official. In Congress, the fearless Lacson did not lose time to vent his ire on top officials, who used their positions to benefit financially.

On Dec. 30, 1949, the start of the six-day special session which Quirino called to enact pending bills, Lacson, in his first act as a lawmaker, stood on a question of collective privilege to ask if Speaker Eugenio Perez was fit to lead the House of Representatives because of the latter’s alleged involvement in immigration quotas. This was a scandal, where elected officials cornered and sold quotas for immigrants, mostly Chinese, during those days.

Lacson’s first two years of his four-year tenure as lawmaker proved his mettle as oppositionist in Congress. He opposed sending Philippine troops to Korea, worked to reduce Chinese immigration quota to 50 from 500 annually, urged for an independent foreign policy while supporting the Philippine claim of sovereignty over the North Bornean state of Sabah, and stood against corruption in government. A group of journalists representing 10 publications ranked as one of the “ten outstanding lawmakers.”

Brioso could not help but narrate two vignettes about Lacson’s separate tussles with two future presidents – Ferdinand Marcos and Diosdado Macapagal, who were first time legislators like Arturo Tolentino, Jose Roy, and Emmanuel Pelaez. While engaged in a fiery debate with Marcos on the floor, Lacson took notice how the Ilocos Norte lawmaker kept point his index finger during the interpellation. Lacson protested and asked “protection” from the chair because Marcos’s use of his index finger reminded him of the trigger finger used in Nalundasan murder. Marcos got angry and shouted an invective against Lacson.

In another instance, Lacson, irked by Macapagal’s frequent objections to the issues he raised on the floor, challenged him to a fistfight outside the plenary hall. Macapagal obliged and they went to an unoccupied committee room to settle the issue. Their colleagues were stopping them, but to no avail. As they reached the room, the two stopped momentarily and sized up each other. Then, they broke into laughter and hugged each other. They took their colleagues for a ride. Lacson and Macapagal, although they belonged to rival political parties, were classmates in the law school.

Although he was adjudged as “the most colorful lawmaker” of his time, Lacson was not happy to remain in Congress. He did not want to remain entangled to all those debates and lawmaking. In the 1951 elections, he ran and won to become the first elective mayor of Manila, besting his arch-enemy, incumbent Manuel dela Fuente of the Liberal Party. Now, Lacson had the unique chance to improve in Manila, which was badly damaged by the last world war.

In his first term as Manila mayor, Lacson sought to improve its financial position (its fiscal position was in the negative), improve police works and visibility, cracked up criminals in the underworld, and cleaned up the city of its garbage and mess. He also uncovered anomalies in City Hall, earning the enmity of the councilors, most of which belonged to the Liberal Party. Lacson openly quarreled with his vice-mayor, Bartolome Gatmaitan. His flamboyant ways did not sit well with his colleagues.

Lacson took extra efforts for the city government to pay its debts, stopped the practice of political appointees who received salaries without working, personally led raids of the underworld, undertook cleaning operations programs of the city, and broke the lines between criminal gangs and police. His efforts resulted positively. Lacson evidently captured the national imagination. Shortly before the run-up to the 1953 presidential elections, Lacson was bruited as a possible running mate of Ramon Magsaysay, who resigned as defense secretary of Quirino to run as the standard bearer of the Nacionalista Party.

Lacson rejected his possible nomination as Magsaysay’s running mate. He did not feel that he was politically ripe to go for a national position. He instead supported Senator Carlos P. Garcia as the vice presidential candidate and ran for reelection in 1955. His decision had profound effects on his political career. Based on his rising popularity, he could have won as vice president and became president after Magsaysay perished in a plane crash in 1956.

Issues with Imelda, Imee

But what seemed to be pre-ordained by fate, an incident which the author described as “apolitical” became a controversy even after his death in 1962. This incident happened on March 23, 1953. A tall lady from Leyte went to his office on what the author said was “on the strength of a previously scheduled appointment. Imelda Romualdez, who later became the wife of Ferdinand Marcos, appealed to Lacson that she should be the winner of Miss Manila, not a certain Norma Jimenez, who was earlier declared winner by the pageant’s board.

This is Brioso’s narrative: “After Romualdez’s visit, Lacson issued a strongly worded letter, which was in nature of a protest against the choice of Jimenez as the city’s representative to the beauty pageant. According to the letter, the board’s decision was contrary to the decision of the special committee (whose members had been appointed by Lacson per the authority of the board itself) which had adjudged Romualdez as the first choice for Manila with Jimenez as runner-up. The letter went on to clarify that the committee’s choice was based on the standards of individual beauty of facial expression, personality, carriage and educational attainments.

“Under these criteria, it was the committee’s decision to adjudge Miss Romualdez as the winner with 655 points, while Miss Jimenez tied with Miss Amparo Manuel with 453 points each. Lacson claimed that even before the committee could submit its official report to the board, ‘the newspapers (had) announced that the board had chosen Miss Norma Jimenez as Miss Manila of 1953 in absolute disregard of the committee’s decision and my personal judgment.’

“Since the board had committed a direct violation of the contest regulations, the decision reached by it was void, and thus, under the circumstances, so Lacson’s letter concluded, the mayor’s office ‘would like to inform you (the board) formally that it (the city of Manila) has no official candidate for Miss Philippines other than Miss Imelda Romualdez.’

“Armed with the mayor’s decision, Romualdez was able to attend the presentation of candidates for the Miss Philippines contest, an evening affair graced by no less than Finland’s Armi Kuusela, the first Miss Universe winner. It was, in fact, an oddity simply because there were two Misses Manila that represented the city, one chosen by the board directors of the Philippine International Fair, and another by the mayor of Manila.

“But the Philippine International Fair officials would eventually overrule Lacson’s decision. So aid the press release by the Fair’s Board of directors: ‘Manila, for the purposes of the beauty contest, had been considered an area like Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, so the Mayor of Manila, unlike the mayors of other chartered cities and the governor of the province, was not empowered to choose the candidate for Miss Manila. Miss Jimenez had received more votes than Miss Romualdez, and, hence, had been declared winner.”

This initial discussion on Miss Manila issue merited two pages in Brioso’s book – pages 149 and 150. But the author went to discuss the issue in full in a separate chapter in the closing pages of the book. In Chapter 14 (Arsenic: the Stories), the author went to discuss Imelda Marcos’s denial of any liaison with Lacson. The author cited Winnie Monsod’s two-part TV interview of 84-year old Imelda aired by GMA-7 on Oct. 7 and 14, 2013.

The author said: “One of the questions asked her by Winnie Monsod was about the rumor that Imee Marcos not Ferdinand’s daughter but Lacson’s. Professing ignorance of the rumor, Imelda said she saw Lacson twice in her life and this was when she joined the Miss Manila beauty contest. Pressed on by the host, Imelda said with vehemence that she never fooled around her marriage. Her answers completely denied that she ever had any affair with Lacson.”

Quoting an American author in a book about Imelda, Brioso said Luchi, Lacson’s wife, was said to have confronted her husband once about a purported affair with Imelda, to which Lacson denied. But the author quoted Luchi as saying that she would not know if Imee is indeed Lacson’s daughter. “I said I didn’t know, but, of course, the wife is always the last to know,” the American author quoted Luchi as saying.

Millie Lacson Lapira, Lacson’s eldest daughter and wife of TV newscaster Bong Lapira, told the author that since she was the mayor’s daughter, people gravitated to her. Imelda was among her acquaintance. But mother Luchi admonished her to stop seeing Imelda, an admonition which she responded positively. Somehow, the author speculated that Imelda’s friendship with Millie was one of the reason she was able to get an appointment with the mayor.

Former senator Jose Diokno and former Manila vice mayor James Barbers were two persons, who were closely associated with Lacson, but they too answered in the negative whenever the issue of Lacson’s affair with Imelda was raised. He speculated that since Lacson had made many enemies when he was Manila mayor, certain people would exploit any rumor about him. But the author confirmed that Lacson indeed played around, although he did not reach the point of leaving his family or losing his love for Luchi and his children.

In brief, the issue of Lacson’s alleged liaison with Imelda Marcos and Imee’s fatherhood did not have any confirmation. Everything that has been said so far has been largely circumstantial that did not have any probative value to make a conclusion. (to be continued)

Next and Last Part: Lacson’s political career and death