How can an Osmeña ever support a Roxas?

The annals of Philippine political history should remind us, especially Visayans, that the Roxases of Capiz have never been truly and genuinely considered friends with the Osmeñas of Cebu. History is replete with too many political divergences, rather than convergences, between the two famous political clans.

First of all, we should always remember that the patriarch of the Osmeña clan, the "Grand Old Man of Cebu," Don Sergio Sr. was a pioneer, pillar and stalwart of the old and glorious Nacionalista Party. Upon the other hand, Don Manuel Acuña Roxas was the undisputed founder of the Liberal Party. The NP and the LP were poles apart in principles, values and platforms. The rivalry between the two titans and their respective families was not like the bitter war between the Capiulets and the Montagues in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The power struggle was principle-based.

The Nacionalista Party was a party that valued nationalism as the centerpiece of its platforms of government. The NP believed that the Philippines should take care of the Filipinos, first and above all others. The national patrimony should be conserved and developed for the Filipinos, and the land and natural resources should be only for Filipinos.

On the other hand, the Liberal Party favored opening our territories to foreign investments and to allow the free market forces to operate without or with least intervention by the state and the government. For this reason, it was the LP that agreed to give the Americans the free use of our territorial domain for US bases, and for US citizens to use, exploit and own our natural resources. And so during Don Sergio's and Don Manuel's times, the LPs were never acceptable to the NPs. They were oil and water.

It was President Manuel Roxas who defeated President Sergio Osmeña Sr. with the razor-edge slimmest plurality in all Philippine history. Don Sergio was a perfect gentleman who was very humble, soft-spoken and polite. Don Manuel was fiery, passionate and bombastic, although not as eloquent as the famous President Manuel L. Quezon, an NP. Don Sergio took over as president when Quezon died in Saranac Lake, New York. After taking over, Roxas challenged him. Osmeña delivered only one speech in deference to Roxas who was a fellow Visayan. The rest is history. Don Sergio could not have imagined that some Osmeñas later turned LP, including Sonny and Serging himself.

In the vice presidential race in 1963, the son of Don Manuel, Gerardo or Gerry (married to Judy Araneta), the father of today's Mar (Manuel Araneta Roxas), defeated Serging who ran as independent. Gerry was an official LP candidate in the ticket of President Diosdado Macapagal.

Both Roxas and Serging Osmeña were beaten by a richer, more powerful Visayan, Don Fernando Lopez, the vice presidential bet in the NP ticket of Ferdinand Marcos. Don Fernando was also the vice president of Elpidio Quirino, the president who succeeded Manuel Roxas. Roxas, Quirino, Macapagal and Marcos were LPs. But Marcos turned NP and joined the party of Quezon, Osmeña, Magsaysay and Garcia.

And so I cannot, for the life of me, understand at all how an Osmeña in Cebu today can support Mar Roxas in the truest sense of the word "support." No matter what imperative for political expediency there is, the fact remains that there had been bad blood all along in the annals of political history. If at all Mar will manage to win in Cebu, it is because the Visayans do not like another Manila boy to be in Malacañang. The last seven presidents were all from Luzon, starting from Diosdado Macapagal, Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Erap Estrada, GMA and PNoy. If ever Roxas can make it by the skin of his teeth here, it will be because the Cebuanos do not love Grace Poe or she will be disqualified.

The Philippine politics is a politics of family dynasties, no matter how we hate dynasties. In every town, there are families who control both the economy and the politics. Whether that is good or bad is beside the point. The fact is, that is a reality. There are families who hate each other and can never be in one team. But there are also political marriages of convenience. There was a time when in Lanao the Quibranzas and the Dimaporos were warring against each other. But when they became sick and tired of it all, a young handsome Dimaporo, son of Ali, married a beautiful Quibranza. The two clans united and they lived peacefully thereafter. I do not know if there has been a political marriage between the Osmeñas and the Roxases. As far as I know, they are poles apart. Nonetheless, everything is possible in Philippine politics. To politicians, what matters most is victory.