Manuel P. Manahan, The Best President the Philippines Never Had
MANUEL P. MANAHAN
(1916 – 1994)
Outstanding Senator
The third of the six children of Juan Manahan of Bulacan and Cleotilde Perez of Manila and Laguna, Manuel P. Manahan was born on New Year’s Day, 1916. During his lifetime, he served as senator, journalist, businessman, and rural development advocate.
A product of the Ateneo de Manila, he finished high school in 1933 and obtained his bachelor arts degree in 1937. Early reference to him as a businessman described him as a young soft drinks manufacturer. In 1933, he founded the Philippine Standard Products Company. In 1937, he joined Heacock’s as a business apprentice under Samuel F. Gaches, its president.
During World War II, he was suspected of being a civilian attached to the Philippine Army. He was imprisoned by the Japanese along with the likes of Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez, Colonel Jose Olivares, the first Filipino Annapolis Academy graduate, and Bienvenido de la Paz, a journalist of the Spanish newspaper El Debate. They shared cell no. 8, which soon became crowded as more detainees were later dumped into it. Thus, they slept like sardines on the wooden floor with hardly any room to turn on their sides.
Manahan once described the ordeal of Amang Rodriguez.
The Japanese would interrogate Rodriguez with his hands tied with wire. They would be swollen and blackish afterwards when Rodriguez returned to his cell. Manahan would massage his hands to restore his blood circulation.
Once, Rodriguez was heard talking by the Japanese guard. When the guard came blustering into the cell to ask who it was he had heard talking, Manahan raised his hand because he was the youngest among those in the cell and could take the punishment better. The guard whacked him with half a dozen blows of a rubber hose, Manahan did not mind.
One of their deadliest tormentors in prison, according to Manahan, were the lice, which clung hard to their bodies. The itches they caused were infernal. After his release, Manahan worked for the underground press, for which he was later awarded the Legion of Honor, with an officer’s rank.
Shortly after the war, he helped edit and publish the Free Philippines, a political paper. Later, he published the Liberty News, a daily in English; Bagong Buhay, a Tagalog daily; and La Voz de Manila, a Spanish publication. He attended the United Nations Conference in San Francisco as a press representative.
While in the United States, he undertook a study and observation of the management and publication of the Scrip Howard newspapers in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York. He also worked as assistant on Philippine Affairs at the Jones Corporation, a US fund – raising firm.
In recognition of his leadership in Philippine journalism, he was elected president of the Philippine News Service in 1953. Manahan was publisher of Bagong Buhay when he was named by President Magsaysay to head the Presidential Complaints and Action Committee popularly known as the PCAC. He also headed an anonymous group tasked with screening the administration’s prospective appointees for their moral fitness.
Thousands of citizens who could neither go to Malacañang nor write directly to the President about their problems trooped to the PCAC. Manahan exercised the President’s authority in availing for it the services of the executive office, including the armed forces. His successful management of the PCAC led to his appointment as commissioner of customs in 1953, signifying the President’s faith in Manahan’s integrity and executive ability. He was also designated chairman of the Community Development Authority.
Manahan was already a senator when he sought the presidency during the 1957 elections. With Gregorio Araneta as his running mate, he ran against President Carlos P. Garcia, Jose Yulo, Claro M. Recto and Antonio Quirino. He was a dynamic campaigner. Knowing that he lacked the political machinery of Yulo and Garcia, he relied on his personal style of campaigning. He used a helicopter in reaching voters, often chatting with them. Even the press
was mystified with his style, which was reminiscent of that of Ramon Magsaysay, who had died in office in 1957. Manahan, however, lost in that election, placing only third to Garcia in the balloting.
In 1964, Manahan was voted one of the most outstanding senators.
He was chosen as “Man of the Year” by the Philippine Free Press, winner of the Dona Aurora – Aragon Award for Peace, named “Ama ng Kooperatiba by President Aquino”, and was a recipient of the “Lux in Domini” award of the Ateneo de Manila for being a “man for others,” the highest award given to an alumnus. Incidentally, it was at the Jesuit Institution where he started his journalistic career as an editor of the Guidon. Manahan served as chairman of the Cooperative Foundation of the Philippines and of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement. He was president at one time of Tabacalera. He was the executive vice president of the Manila Times Publishing Corporation prior to the declaration of martial law in 1972.
He was a member of the Rotary Club and the Knights of Columbus.
Manahan was married to the former Constancia la Guardia, who gave him seven children.
He died of heart failure on May 18, 1994 in Caba, La Union. He was 78.
At the time of his death, he was chairman of the board of College Assurance Plan and CAP Pension Corporation.
References:
Bulletin Today, April 19, 1994
“Muere Manuel Manahan,” Chronicle Manila April 19, 1994.
(He was named after his grandfather Juan Manahan)
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