Meanwhile, one of my elder maternal first cousins, Ramon “Monchet” Albert y Araneta called just as dawn was breaking. He told me that all the AM and FM radio stations were dead. Meanwhile, Charlie and Gerry called me for us to get together and go to the residence of Liberal Party (LP) President, Senate Minority Floor Leader and Senator (1967 – 1973) Gerardo “Gerry” Roxas y de Leon on P. Tuason corner EDSA. I informed Noel and Elin Mondejar and we all went to Senator Roxas’ home.
We arrived at about 7:00 am on Saturday, September 23, 1972. The Manila Times Publisher, Joaquin “Chino” Roces was already there, conferring with Senator Roxas. He had not yet been arrested although the Media Organizations owned by the Roces Family like The Manila Times, ABC TV 5 and DZMT Radio Networks had all been shut down. Within the day, he would join dozens of media personalities and hundreds of workers in detention in Camp Crame and Ft. Bonifacio as well as in military camps all over the Philippines.
Roxas’s military aide, then Colonel Rodrigo Gutang y Bautista (later Brig. General and PC Regional Command (Recom) 12 Commander and Cotabato Congressman), recognized us as close allies of Roxas and ushered us in. We were also quite well acquainted with Don Chino. We had closely collaborated with him in feeding reports about the victims of the Ora Centro and Este, Barangay Ora, Bantay, Ilocos Sur, election related incidents as well as other violent incidents in the province that the mass media failed to cover and report due to news blackouts and harassments of mass media personnel.
Roxas was very pleased to see us. We were among those in the Third Force that believed in the 1961 coalition model that resulted in victory rather than the 1957 and 1965 purist third force models that resulted in defeat and diminishing returns. I had just met Senator Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino y Aquino the month before courtesy of my elder maternal first cousin Antonio “Tonypet” S. Araneta y Rebullida. We had known Roxas much longer and more intimately.
Both Gerry Esguerra (my Ateneo de Manila classmate from grade one until he dropped out of third year College) and my best friend, Herman “Mentong” Tiu Laurel (He dropped out of freshman year at the De La Salle College at the same period that I was dropping out of senior year college at the Ateneo de Manila University) worked as political assistants of Roxas at his residence.
In promoting the 1961 coalition model, we proposed that the Reformist Third Force leader Manglapus run as the Vice - Presidential running mate of the LP Presidential candidate in the November 1973 National Elections. Roxas was the LP President while Aquino was the LP Secretary General.
In pre - Martial Law national campaigns, elections and politics, Presidential/Vice Presidential Tandems were supposed to be a mix of Northern and Southern candidates: Quezon – Osmena, Roxas – Quirino, Magsaysay – Garcia, Macapagal – Pelaez, Marcos – Lopez.
While Manglapus was from Tagudin, Ilocos Sur, Roxas was from Capiz City. Aquino was from Concepcion, Tarlac. Our perfect match would have been the Roxas – Manglapus tandem.
That would be the second to the last time that I would see and meet and talk to him before he died on April 19, 1982. In September 1981, my wife, Baby, and I, escorted my maternal uncle 1935 and 1971 Concon Delegate, DANR Secretary and Atty. Salvador “Tito Badong” Araneta y Zaragoza on a flight to San Francisco to visit his eldest daughter, Carminia A. Segovia’s, family.
Baby and I proceeded to Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Boston and Washington D. C./Virginia. In LA/LB, we visited Baby’s sister, Cecile Zagala’s family, Senator Jovito “Jovy” Salonga and wife, Northern Samar Congressman Raul Daza and MFP/NAM stalwart Danny Lamila. In New York, we attended the Movement for a Free Philippines (MFP) Annual Convention and visited former Senator and Senate Minority Floor Leader Gerry Roxas (accompanied by Steve Psinakis and Charlie Avila), and 1971 Concon Delegate from Sorsogon and former Colonel Bonifacio Gillego. In Boston, we visited Ninoy at his home, while his daughters, Balsy, Pinky and Viel took Baby on a tour of the Harvard Campus and parts of the city. In Virginia, we stayed overnight at the Manglapus home. Our fellow activists of the YCSP, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Naniego and Tina Manglapus, as well as Gusty Ortigas of the Light a Fire Movement were there.
Going back to Saturday, September 23, after we left the Roxas home, we went about our separate organizational tasks. Throughout the day, all the Radio and TV airwaves were silent except for the repeated announcement that the author of Martial Law, President Ferdinand Marcoa y Edralin would address the Nation.
In the afternoon we had an emergency meeting of the KASAPI National Council and other leaders at the Fenix residence near West Ave., QC. It was presided by our new Chairman, Herman “Ka Mentong” Tiu Laurel who had been my Secretary General before I resigned. In the days and weeks and months after, we had a hard time communicating and networking with our activist and political allies as we tried to practice working underground.
Our survey of arrested, killed and in hiding activists revealed that in the Greater Manila Area, the overwhelming majority of those affected belonged to the Radicals and very few among the Moderates. However, outside the GMA, in the more rural provinces, the AFP, Intelligence and Police, did not always know how to discriminate and differentiate.
Within a month, two of our KASAPI leaders in Pinamalayan, Mindoro Oriental, Rey Andal and Dante Perez, were killed in a firefight. Just a few months before, Rolando “Boyet” Montiel, a leader – organizer in our Urban Poor Sandigan, and I took an overnight journey by bus, ferry and bus to confer with our Mindoro Oriental chapter and dissuade them from taking up arms. We failed in our mission.
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