The numbers game

The 2026 Senate coup that was, and another percolating in the wings, remains a numbers game. Looking back, it also played out in the 1897 Tejeros Convention, when Andres Bonifacio presided over a snap election that would replace the Katipunan with a revolutionary government. Bonifacio presumed he had the numbers; he must have been surprised when Emilio Aguinaldo was elected President in the first ballot. Aguinaldo was not even present at the elections. I was taught that the elections were rigged, that our founding fathers cheated, that Tejeros was the triumph of regionalism or “Cavitismo.”

We need to look beyond the numbers into the affiliations of the leaders elected in Tejeros. Surprisingly, Aguinaldo was the only “Magdalo” in a slate dominated by “Magdiwang.” How did this happen? Was Bonifacio an outsider in Cavite, in elections between provincemates or kababayan, who were related by blood, kumpadres, classmates, or childhood friends? Bonifacio was hosted in Cavite by Magdiwang, his wife was related to Magdiwang leaders. Magdiwang controlled the Tejeros elections; why did they throw Bonifacio under the bus? That is the numbers game that led to Bonifacio’s end. By coincidence, the May 11, 2026 Senate coup happened a day after the 129th anniversary of the execution of the Bonifacio brothers in the Maragondon Range on May 10, 1897.

The shifting numbers in the current Senate reminded me of another numbers game that played out in the Malolos Congress. Of the contentious issues debated when the founding fathers were crafting the Constitution, one was religious freedom, and another was the separation of Church and state. While we do not have a printed record of the proceedings as we do for the 1935 and 1986 Constitutions, we have recourse to the revolutionary newspapers “El Heraldo de la Revolucion” and “La Independencia” and Felipe Calderon’s “Mis memorias sobre la revolucion filipina. Segunda etapa 1898 a 1901” (My memoir of the Philippine revolution. Second phase 1898 to 1901), first published by El Renacimiento Press in 1907 and translated from the original Spanish and published in the Philippine Review, January 1919.

Very long speeches were delivered on the topic in November 1898, one giving a whole history of the church! Calderon proposed the union of Church and state and Roman Catholicism as the state religion. He was fiercely opposed by Tomas and Arcadio del Rosario, Cecilio Hilario, and others who insisted on recognizing the equality of all faiths and the freedom to exercise them. Then, there was the issue of separation of Church and state.

Quoting from a report in La Independencia, Calderon said the session opened at 9:12 a.m., with Pedro Paterno presiding, assisted by Pablo Tecson and Pablo Ocampo as secretaries. The roll was called and included on the list of representatives present; we see the names of three Luna brothers: Jose, Joaquin, and Antonio. There were many people in the gallery, including churchmen. The regulations on secret or verbal voting were read and debated, and a verbal voting resulted in a tie with 25 for and 25 against the same. Another long “spirited and turbulent debate” ensued, and another voting was held, this time, “carried by a plurality of one vote, that of Tecson. Loud applause resounded. The partisans of freedom cheered loudly. The hour being quite late, the session adjourned at past noon.”

What is not in the newspaper accounts and Calderon’s memoir is related by Gen. Jose Alejandrino in his 1933 memoir “La senda del sacrificio” (translated from the original Spanish as “The Price of Freedom” and published in 1949). One of the anecdotes in an entire chapter devoted to Antonio Luna relates how the general craftily achieved the slim affirmative vote. Luna was identified with the “radical” faction in the Malolos Congress; he had a plan.

Alejandrino wrote: “Eloquent speeches from each group [radical vs conservative] were pronounced, but there was never a vote because both groups were afraid of the results of the balloting. Luna broke the situation with one of those tricks peculiar to his character and which made him famous later.

“[Luna] assembled all those delegates of the radical faction who had confidence in him, advising them to keep away from the sessions of the Congress, but requesting them to remain within call at a moment’s notice. With the radicals absent, the conservatives constituted a majority during the sessions. Having made a careful counting and thinking themselves sure of victory, the conservatives asked for a vote while the few radicals present registered a token opposition. The motion to call a vote was carried. Then at the precise moment of balloting, Luna immediately called all his adherents to enter the session hall en masse, to the surprise of the confident conservatives. The voting was taken, and we won, if I remember right, by one or two votes. In this manner, the provision in our Constitution for the separation of Church and state was secured.”

One can fill a whole book on the numbers game in Philippine history; let’s hope the numbers lead to better results in the present.

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