Aguinaldo protest, Nalundasan murder
It is a real pity that most Filipinos only remember the main contenders in a national election. The losers can sometimes be more interesting than the winners. In 1935, the two main contenders were Manuel Luis Quezon vs. Emilio Aguinaldo. Bishop Gregorio Aglipay gets mentioned but not Pascual Racuyal, who earned the distinction of having challenged all presidents from Quezon to Marcos and lost. He would have challenged Ferdinand E. Marcos and Corazon Aquino in the 1986 snap elections too, but by then he was declared a nuisance candidate. Emilio Aguinaldo’s election protest traveled all the way to the White House; his two letters dated Oct. 11 and 17, 1935—before and after US governor general Frank Murphy certified the official election canvas by the Legislature—were dutifully transmitted to Washington. On Dec. 7, 1935, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized US High Commissioner Murphy to reply to Aguinaldo’s protest with these words:
“It is noted that General Aguinaldo declined to avail himself of proffered invitations to substantiate his charges through the procedure provided by law. I note further that the committees on elections of the Philippine Legislature conducted investigations without the cooperation of the general and held that the charges whether or not proved were not calculated to affect materially the election results.
“Accordingly, you may inform General Aguinaldo that I have carefully noted the contents of his letters … addressed to you as Governor General with the conclusion that there would not appear to be any federal law which authorizes the President of the United States to act in the matter.”
Newspaper clippings compiled by Joseph Ralston Hayden (vice governor of the Philippines 1933 to 1935) and now preserved in the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan, provide a sense of the times. Before the elections, for example, Gregorio Aglipay called out the municipal police of San Pablo for failing to maintain peace and order during his campaign that was disrupted by “six showers of hurled rocks” that the press took as “six manifestations of the inefficient and effectiveness of the town police.” An editorial in the Bulletin of Sept. 12, 1935, commented on the incident and concluded:
“The people of San Pablo have the right to their opinion as regards the fitness of Bishop Aglipay … they can think what they wish about the propriety of the churchman’s political activities, but they must remember that he and his followers have their rights, and that the town derives most damaging advertising from disorders which show up the town police as it was shown up.”
While most candidates campaigned in person, it was impossible to accept all invitations, thus they sent representatives or political allies to campaign for them. Edging close to election day, Aguinaldo campaigned in Bicol, and traveling by land back to Manila made stops in Tayabas and Batangas. All candidates used print: leaflets, posters, and the press. Some who had the budget, like Quezon and Sergio Osmeña, used the radio, with Quezon speaking in Tagalog (in Tagalog-speaking areas), while Osmeña spoke in Spanish.
Then as now, there was election-related violence. Local news, from Ilocos Norte, reported that Julio Nalundasan of Batac was reelected in a town dominated by Aglipayans. Two weeks before the elections, Nalundasan’s car was ambushed and two of his local campaign leaders were beaten up by alleged Aglipay supporters. According to Mrs. Nalundasan, as reported by the Herald on Sept. 21, 1935, the last of many visitors who had come to their home to congratulate the congressman-elect left at 8 p.m. Nalundasan had dinner, and went to a window to brush his teeth and gargle. Mrs. Nalundasan said that: “As he turned away from the window, a shot rang in the air and he fell to the floor dying, [saying as he dropped, “God help me!”] The bullet [from a .25 caliber automatic revolver] had entered his back and pierced his heart.”
Nalundasan won over Mariano Marcos whom he previously defeated in the 1934 elections. Marcos was endorsed by Manuel Roxas, leader of the “Bagong Katipunan” but failed to convince Batac voters who chose Nalundasan instead. It is uncanny how a small bit of local news would become national and begin the saga of Ferdinand E. Marcos: charged with the Nalundasan murder, brought to trial, acquitted, and the rest is history.
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