Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, Bohol's Illustrious Son

CPG’s PARENTAL LINEAGE, CHILDHOOD

AND EARLY BEGINNINGS

 

 

The life of Carlos Polistico Garcia was a colorful one.  It may be said that he rose to the astral heights of prominence rung by rung through the success ladder as a radiant symbol of Filipinism, nationalism and patriotism of the highest order and an epitome of democracy, liberty and justice. Collectively, his life in a great measure constitutes the country’s history for forty-six years.  It will continue to be a fountain source of inspiration to influence Philippine Life till the last syllable of recorded time.

         

          The man, human as he was, had certainly his failing, but among the glittering diamonds of his achievements, his failures were pebbles! Indeed, his was a life replete with the bliss of growth, the Glory of action, and the splendor of achievement.

 

          The thinking and actions of a man are ascertained by many factors not the least among them, his childhood background and training.  Heredity enters in, and so do experiences in adulthood, but the formative years, the setting and environment into which he was born and where he received his first sharp impressions of life, are likely to color and influence all of the man’s subsequent reaction’s to life.  In view of this truism, it is imperative to look into the early beginnings of the Garcia record.

 

          The late president belonged to a middle-class family which was very fortunate for this enabled him to witness and study at a closer perspective both the dark and bright sides of life.  He developed fond acquaintance with the poor and the rich, saw how they lived, how they felt acted, and understood their problems.  Very early in life, therefore, he learned that the world was not merely of one color that no certain class of people had a monopoly of it.  Each class had its own cap[abilities and its own share to perform in the service of the country.  This knowledge interested him from the beginning and inspired him into taking up public service as his life career.

         

 

PARENTAL LINEAGE AND EARLY BEGINNINGS

 

Carlos P. Garcia, poet, philosopher, teacher, parliamentarian, executive, legislator, constitutionalist, philogist, orator, lawyer, diplomat, statesman, and patriot, was born in sitio Loy-a, in the barangay of Baboy (now San Agustin), Talibon, Bohol, on Tuesday, November 4, 1896.  His father was Policronio Garcia, a sailor and farmer who became municipal president (mayor) of Talibon for fifteen consecutive years.  Manoy “Coni”, as CPG’s father was fondly called never had any formal schooling but he was a man with a strong personality and disposition.  Both as a family man and public servant, he was noted as a disciplinarian.  He was a born leader of men whose life was fully dedicated to public service.

 

CPG’s mother was Ambrosia Polistico, a prototype of the humble and homely Filipina of yesteryears.  A devout Catholic and an exemplary housewife, “Manding Butay” as the barrio folks and townspeople fondly called her, was proficient in leading the novena or prayers for the patron saints.  She came from a family of substantial farmers.  As a matter of fact, most of CPG’s landholdings came from his mother’s inheritance from her parents – Carino Polistico and Ramona Clara Evalaroza.

 

Mariano Garcia, CPG’s grandfather, was also a town official, a cabeza de barangay, during the Spanish regime.  It was his duty to collect taxes from the people of Talibon which he later turned over to the Castilian authorities.  Whenever he failed to collect the exact amount he was supposed to accumulate from the taxpayers within his jurisdiction, the Spanish officials would compel him to make up the difference himself.  Hence, while it was an honor to be a cabeza de barangay  in those days, at the same time it was a financial burden.

 

Mariano’s wife, Maria Evardo, was a simple and industrious woman who devoted herself to the rearing of children and to the home chores.

 

 

CPG’S BIRTHPLACE

 

CPG’s birthplace was typical of the simplicity and humility which have characterized the Garcia’s – a remote one, decidedly rural which is seven and a half kilometers away from the poblacion.  The only landmark now of his early beginnings is the piece of land where an old mango tree still stands to this very day supposedly planted by his father, Policronio, noon-day when CPG was born.  A wooden-nipa-and bamboo house belonging to Barangay Captain of San Agustin Antonio M. Garcia, son of the late Ignacio Garcia, replaced the ruined Garcia abode at Loy-a, so named because of the abundance of ginger plants in that place.

 

 

TWO MARRIAGES

 

CPG’s mother, Ambrosia was married twice.  Her first husband was Arsenio (Nioy) Boncales of Trinidad, Bohol.  Three children were born of this wedlock, namely, Liberata, Ignacio and Felisa, in the order of their birthdates. Felisa became the mother of Filomeno G. Gonzales, a retired PC Captain, CPG’;s Presidential aide, and mayor of Trinidad, Bohol.  On the other hand Policronio, after the death of Ambrosia married Eustaquia Avergonzado, who is still living.  The couple was blessed by the following children: Prudencio, Ciriaco, Victoriana, Maria, Caridad, Policronio, Jr. and Arturo Garcia.  A step-son of Policronio, Panfilo A. Sayson, Eustaquia’s only son of a previous marriage, rose to become the principal of Bien Unido Elementary School and Talibon Central Elementary School. 

 

 

“THE BIGGEST HOUSE”

 

CPG’s parents used to own the “biggest house” in the Poblacion, Talibon.  Because of cholera epidemic in 1911 which killed hundreds of people in Talibon and in order to avail of more medical care and attention, the Garcia family moved from Loy-a to Balico, in the vicinity of Poblacion, Talibon.  That was the time in the “biggest house” was constructed.  It was made of wood, bamboo, nipa and galvanized iron roofing.  But it was burned to the ground by the Japanese on July 4, 1943 when they were informed that CPG was a leader of the resistance movement of Bohol.

 

“I remember clearly the day the Japanese burned our house,” President Garcia reminisced. “It was on an American holiday in order to remind my relatives, and the people of my town that the destruction was in retaliation to my unswerving loyalty to the United States of America.”

 

CPG’s book and poems, his philological studies in the Visayan dialect, and his historical accounts of the Boholano hero, Francisco Dagohoy, were all destroyed. His old pictures which he treasured very much were all reduced to ashes.

 

 

THE GARCIA CHILDREN

 

Carlos was the second child of the blissful wedlock of Policronio and Ambrosia.  The names of the Garcia children in the order of their birth dates were as follows:

 

1.    Leoncio, 1894, He became a capataz, a road foreman, and a mayor of Alicia, Bohol.  He was the oldest of the Children.

2.    Carlos, 1896.  He rose from representative, 1925-1931; governor, 1934-1941; senator, 1941-1953, vice-president  of the Philippines, and concurrently secretary of Foreign Affairs, 1953-1957; fourth president of the Republic of the Philippines, 1957-1961; first president of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, June 11-14, 1971;

3.    Primitiva, 1898.  She is the only living sister of CPG.

4.    Cosme, 1900.  He became a lawyer finishing his LLB from the Philippine Law School like his brother, Carlos.  He was once a municipal judge of Jagna, Bohol.  He was elected representative of the third district of Bohol.  A career diplomat, he was minister in the Department of Foreign Affairs.  He became an author of law books and one of the leading law practitioners in Manila during his lifetime.

5.    Cipriano, 1902, He died at the age of 21 years.  His untimely death prevented the holding of a party in honor of CPG’s graduation from the College of Law.

6.    Lucio, 1904.  He was one year old when he died.  He was the youngest of the Garcia children.

CPG’s EARLY CHILDHOOD

 

When the family at Loy-a ran short of viands, Ignacio, CPG’s half-brother, used to gather shells (kaobkob) at Kaeste River or catch crabs at the Dapdap River.

Most often Leoncio and Carlos who were yet in their early teens would accompany Ignacio to these rivers.  Carlos, the younger one, used to cry being bitten by some insects at the bank of those rivers.  Usually, the trio would go to those rivers at five o’clock in the evening when the insects became plentiful in the swamps.  The shells at Kaeste River were taken by Ignacio by diving into the water about one meter deep using the two hands to pick the shells.  It was easy for Ignacio to look for the crabs (alimango) in the Dapdap River for they stayed inside the holes in the swamps.  To catch a crab Ignacio only inserted his right hand into the already located or marked holes, held the crab firmly and pulled it out of the said hole.  Sometimes the crab succeeded in biting Ignacio but crabs were and are still delicacies so that being beaten was worth the pain, ordeal and sacrifice.  Besides, Ignacio was a brave and strong man.  Bravery and courage were safely ingrained in the hearts and moral fiber of the Garcia children.

If not accompanying Ignacio to gather shells or catch crabs, the small boys herded their own carabaos and played with boys of their age in the meadows.  They helped the family in their home chores and in plowing, planting, and harvesting the plants on the farm.

It was to the credit of Policronio and Ambrosia that the family members became closely-knitted. Thus, Liberata, Ignacio, and Felisa had their surnames changed from Boncales to Garcia even if the three children of Ambrosia belonged to a previous marriage.

Like others around them of similar heritage and persuasion, the Garcia elders were industrious and skillful farmers who conserved the soil and grew bounteous crops.  By custom and tenet most of the Garcia’s were peaceful people, sober in habits and dress, who frowned on extravagance and worldly excess of all kinds.  Nevertheless, they admired those who prospered. Although they deplored vanities, they highly valued the institution of private property and they sought to acquire property by thrift, work, and oftentimes by making sensible marriages. Scrupulously honest, they were shrewed bargainers who provided well and ate well.  On Sundays they gathered to hear mass and assuage their conscience by negotiating the distance of fifteen kilometers, back and forth, on foot when they were still in Loy-a.

They were accustomed to cooperative effort for the common good, especially in social and political ways.

All the three boys were born and raised to manhood (another died in infancy).  The three brothers, Leoncio, Carlos, and Cosme formed an unusually closely-knitted fraternity.  The three boys achieved success.  For that and the qualities which helped them succeed, they owed a greater debt to the staunch character, the cheerful industry, the daily training, the ever-present wisdom, and the expert management and discipline of their mother.  She was typical of the courageous, understanding, and capable homemakers who had held families together on the farm and who inculcated the basic human virtues into generations of Filipinos.  She exemplified the best in Filipino family life.  She was a remarkable woman.  She had plenty of that milk of human kindness.

The Garcia children had a busy, practical, and from all the evidence, a happy and fruitful upbringing.

Under their mother’s efficient management and discipline, they were taught to do the job that was needed and to do it quickly and well.  If it was not done well, they were sent back to do it again. There were occasions when the rod was not spared.  The children learned that rewards must be earned, that nothing is gained without the effort.  But when the job was done, they could play.  Mother Ambrosia’s system worked so well that despite the number of duties the children had there was always time to play.

 

 

CPG’S SCHOLASTIC RECORD

 

Garcia pursued the primary course in the Talibon Central Elementary School during the school year 1903-1904.  His first teacher in Spanish and the vernacular was Catalina Auguis Torrefiel (“Maestra Talina”).  Lucio Alingasa, Sr. was his first teacher in English. He completed his elementary education in Talibon graduating at the head of his class in 1910.  He then studied in the Cebu High School completing only the second of the secondary course.  Garcia’s father Policronio, advised him to become a public school teacher in the belief that at the age of sixteen he was yet too young to pursue his studies. After two years of teaching in the public schools of Trinidad and Ubay, he resigned to continue his studies.  As a classroom teacher, CPG was under regular status at P25.00 per month.  He took his third year secondary studies at Silliman Institute (now Silliman University) in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental.  In his senior year in high school, he decided to return to the Cebu High School graduating thereat as class valedictorian in 1916.  It was during this time when he won the Carlock gold medal for excellence in oratory.  Garcia was once an editor of the school paper when he was in the Cebu High School.  He was at the same time a reporter of Cebu’s weekly newspapers in English.

CPG enrolled next in the College of Law of the Philippine Law School in the school year 1919-1920.  He was permitted to pursue the law course because at that time a preparatory law course was not required for admission.

He won prizes for academic excellence, oratory, debating and poetry in the Cebu High School, Silliman Institute and the Philippine Law School.  At the latter school in 1919, Garcia was elected president of the freshman class.  He was also elected speaker pro-tempore of the Junior House and senator of the Junior Senate.  He became secretary of the law school’s Club Cervatino, member of the Lex Club, and the 1921 winner of the Callaghan prize in oratory.  In 1922, he was awarded the West Publishing Company prize for obtaining the highest general average during his first year in the College of Law.  The Lawyer’s cooperative Publishing Company Prize was awarded to him as law class valedictorian in 1923.  He had been recipient of the Malcolm’s four-year law course scholarship prizes for academic excellence.

That CPG was an exceptional student, especially during his senior year in the law school, may be gleaned from this write-up in the “North Star,” the school’s 1923 class annual.

Following is a list of the first five members of the Senior Class who are worthy of mention as Honor Students, for their scholarship, meritorious conduct, splendid school spirit, and special interest shown in behalf and for the furtherance of the school – all of which constitute what may be termed Praiseworthy College Statesmanship:

 

Carlos P. Garcia, of Bohol

Carlos T. Vinegra, of Cavite

Conrado Sanchez, of Batangas

Regino Gonzales, of Samar

Jose N. Topacio, of Cavite

 

 

                             Certified to:

                             (Sgd.) RECARDO C. LACSON

                                       Secretary, Law Faculty

 

 

 

Interesting was the prophecy by a co=graduate, Severino Manahan, who as senior class prophet, predicted that Garcia would be Vice-President of the Republic by October, 1939.  CPG bettered that prophecy when he won the highest position within the gift of his people as president of his country.

Garcia finished the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1923, at the Philippine Law School as Valedictorian (magna cum laude).  He placed 7^th in the bar examinations of 1923 despite serious illness, obtaining the highest rating among the Manila law class valedictorians of that year.  It should be mentioned, at this juncture, that the bar topnocher of that year was Roque Desquitado of Cebu.

It was related that the two doctors (Lava and Reyes) who were Garcia’s co-boarders while taking the examinations advised him to discontinue taking the tests because at that time he had fainting spells due to serious ailment.  Against the doctors’ advice, however, he continued taking the examinations confident that he would pass with flying colors, which he did.

 

 

CPG’s philosophy of life.  Carlos P. Garcia expressed his philosophy of life as follows:

Life is what you make it.  With the necessary consequences of your good deeds, you build the ladder of which rung by rung you climb to sublime destiny or necessary effect of your wrong or bad acts, you build the dungeon of your own life’s imprisonment or bondage.  There is no escape from the universal law of cause and effect.  You always reap what you sow

Thus Garcia expressed his life’s philosophy and thus had lived and patterned his career.  This was his beacon light in his labyrinthine quest for glory and achievement.

 

CPG’s 64^th birthday message. On his 64^th birthday CPG wrote the following letter which wads typical of the sentiments on similar occasions to Atty. Zoilo Dejaresco, Jr. Editor-Publisher of the Bohol Chronicle:

 

A man, on his birthday, anniversary, looks far and wide, scans the distance, and reflects on things that had to do with the past, have to do with the present and the future. A serious reflection such as this yields a closer picture of what he has done, is doing and what he ought to still do.  On my part and on my birthday anniversary, I see the complex problems confronting our country.  To some we have found solutions, to others we have yet to seek through our sustained efforts and energies the elusive alchemy for their eventual liquidation.  The present dispensation, in spite of its shortcomings here and there – for no administration can be perfect, has spared neither time nor effort to promote the common weal on all occasions and whatever may be gratuitously said against it by detractors.  I cannot be accused of insincerity, callousness, or bigotry.  As I then add another year to my life, my only wish is that the Good Lord would continue to infuse me with physical and moral strength to the end that I may, by his will and grace, serve the nation faithfully and according to the best dictates of my conscience.

 

Sermon on the Mount. Carlos P. Garcia was a very religious man.  He read the Bible extensively.  As a matter of fact, all his public speeches were adorned by biblical passages here and there.  Commenting on excerpts from the “Sermon on the Mount,” he opined:

This excerpt from the Holy Bible has been a rich source of spiritual inspiration for ages past and its message has not lost its deep meaning and significance to the modern world. I have always maintained that whatever institutions man may build for his political, social and economic advancement, these cannot long endure if they are not founded on the rock of moral practices and upright living.

 

Man with steel nerves.  Carlos P. Garcia was best remembered for his character traits that helped shape the course of his personal career and that of the state. He was a man with steel nerves. During his term as President he was the most maligned man in the country, attacked not only by partisan critics but by some members of the Nacionalista Party of which he was the titular head.  But he kept his cool and refused to go down to the level of the charges against his person and policies.

          “His standard reaction to reports that he was being attacked was a quick smile,” said one observer.  “He bore no rancor for those hitting him.  He had the grace and the fortitude to remain above the furor created by the petty men.  He knew how to maintain the mystique required to leadership.”

 

CPG’s hobbies.  One of Carlos P. Garcia’s hobbies was reading.  His favorite books and authors included philosophy, poetry, history, economics, Shakespeare, Bacon, Plato, Aristotle, Cervantes, Ingersoll, Vargas, Villa and others. He was at ease in any conversation on Shakespearean poetry and drama. “He was not only a writer,” Garcia remarked referring to the Bard of Avon, “but a philosopher.”

Philosophy was likewise Garcia’s favorite study. “I used to read a lot of philosophical treaties in Spanish when I still had my library but all my books were lost during the Occupation,” he said with a note of regret in his voice. “Even my my extensive historical researches on the Boholano hero, Dagohoy, disappeared.”

          Garcia also played chess, his favorite pastime, in which he excelled.  He was also interested in swimming.

 

CPG’s family life.  Carlos P. Garcia was married to Leonila Dimataga, a comely lady of Opon, Cebu on May 24, 1933 to the heartbreak of innumerable señoritas.  Daughter of a family of politicians, “Inday” Lilang’s destiny has been politics and public service.

          Mrs. Garcia was born on July 17, 1906, in Opon, Cebu, now Lapu-Lapu City.  Her father was mayor of Opon for many years. Mariano “Dodong” Dimataga, her brother held the same position for an unprecedented 30-year term up to 1967.  She finished Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy at the University of the Sto. Tomas.  It was while practicing her profession in Bohol that she met a young lawyer named Carlos P. Garcia.  She became his lucky star or when they married it was the start of his long brilliant career.

 

Linda, CPG’s only daughter. The following is what the Philippines Free Press thinks of Linda at twenty-two:

She is so slim and looks so light and small, at 22, people will take her for a teenager.  She has her mother’s delicate coloring, her father’s wide cheek.  When she smiles, her eyes dwindle into mere gleams; when she laughs, they vanish altogether. But she moves with as inherent a poise that it’s hard to believe she ever went through an awkward age for this low-voiced, soft-spoken and dainty-looking. Linda has spent most of her young life away from home, although an only child, and has been capably cared of herself since she first went off to school. 

 

Carlos P. Garcia’s interest in judiciary.  When asked if it was true that he was interested in becoming chief justice of the Supreme Court when Don Ricardo Paras retired years ago, President Garcia declared:

I was not exactly keen about it but I would have gladly accepted it had President Marcos offered it to me.  I was 68 years old at the time and, I had only two years more to go before I reach the compulsory retirement age.  But the offer did not come my way.

 

Carlos P. Garcia never thought he would be president. CPG was once asked if in the past he had never ever thought that some day he would be president, Garcia made this reply:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

I never thought that I would someday be President.  But two people put that idea in my mind, namely, President Quezon and a priest from Leyte.

Sometime in 1935, shortly after the great Boholano        politician and leader, Jose A. Clarin died, President Quezon came to my province to attend Clarin’s interment.  He met me and I had occasion to talk to him.  After his return to Manila, Quezon told a number of big politicians that he had been impressed by my leadership in Bohol and went to the extent of predicting that someday Garcia will be a leader of this nation.  Of course, I did not take his prediction seriously.  But human that I am, kept thinking of its since then.

 

 

 

 

CARLOS P. GARCIA SPEECHES

 

 

The life of a great man of a country and his speeches constitute condensation of the country’s history during his lifetime, in one way or the other.  Collectively, his life, in a great measure, constitutes the country’s history while his speeches reflect the problems which the country had to face.  These speeches present a challenge to the courage, vision, and resourcefulness of the people in their efforts to solve community and/or national problems.

 

1.    Inaugural address delivered at the Luneta at 12:10 o’clock p.m. December 30, 1957;

2.    Speech during the joint session of the Philippines Senate and the House of Representatives against the resolution amending the Constitution, giving Americans equal rights in the exploitation of our natural resources and operation of public utilities, September 18, 1946.  Carlos P. Garcia was then a senator;

3.    President Garcia’s funeral oration on Ramon Magsaysay, Congress of the Philippines, March 21, 1957;

4.    Address By His Excellency Carlos P. Garcia before a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress on June 18,1958;

5.    President Garcia’s speech on the 10^th anniversary celebration of the death of President Roxas, April 15, 1958, at Clark Field, Pampanga; and

6.    First Prize Winning Oration in the First Annual Oratorical Contest of the College of Law, Philippine Law School.

7.    Acceptance Speech of CPG as 1^st 1971 Concon President.

It was the forte of the late President to use effectively high flown, poetic phraseology in his orations.  CPG was acclaimed as a polished orator in this country and abroad.  He had few equals in this country.  CPG’s oratory was developed while he was young student of the Cebu High School, Silliman University, and the Philippine Law School.  In 1916 he won the all-Cebu Carlock Gold Medal for excellence in oratory.  In 1918 Garcia won the gold medal in the first oratorical contest conducted by the defunct Bohol Young People’s Annual Conference, which was an organ of militant public opinion among the youth of the province.

 

 

 

 

PRESIENT GARIA’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED

AT THE LUNETA AT 12:10 P.M., DECEMBER 30, 1957

 

My Fellow Countrymen:

 

          In the sober exercise of your constitutional prerogatives as a free people, you have elected me President of the Philippines.  With humility and deep gratitude, I accept your mandate, and God helping, I shall not fail you.

          With my oath of office goes my solemn pledge of dedicated service to the nation.  Invoking the guidance of Divine Providence and the memory of my illustrious predecessors, I take upon myself the tremendous responsibilities of national leadership with the courage and fervor inspired by the warm national unity in dedication and devotion to country.  But I must confess in all candor that the best and the outmost I can give in the service of the people will avail us little unless I receive the understanding, faith, and support of my countrymen.  In every momentous time of our history our people had given their full measure of support to our leaders.  As I assume national leadership in answer to your summons on a day consecrated by the supreme sacrifice of Rizal, I pray for one gift – The heart of the Filipino people.  In return I give you mine.

          In the spirit, therefore, of that covenant of the hearts between the people and their chosen leader, I face the future aglow with hope and confidence.  Together we will meet our common problems and difficulties.  With the singleness of purpose together we will overcome them.

 

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

 

Self-Sufficiency in Food – As a people we prize highly the moral and spiritual values of life.  But realities of the moment have made us more preoccupied with economic problems chiefly concerning the material values of national life.

          It is a strange paradox that while the basic articles in our fundamental economy are rice and fish, we are not self-sufficient in both from time immemorial.  We have gone into extensive plans and schemes in industrialization, foreign trade, foreign exchange, and similar matters, but we have not given sufficient thought of incentives, nor have we done enough to provide for the fundamental need of national life – foodstuff.  In the midst of abundant natural resources for the rice culture and the fish production, we still have to import from abroad a substantial part of the supply to meet these absolute and irreducible necessities of life.  Thus, in case of a blockade as dramatically shown in the last world war, this fact can be serious weakness in our national defense. What happened in the last world war with tragic consequences to our army and our people should spur us to the high resolve never again to neglect this essential side of our economy.

          It is therefore, imperative that we lose no time and spare no effort in reorienting our national economic policies towards doing first things first.  We must produce here, by and for ourselves, enough to provide for the fundamental needs of life – food, shelter and clothing.  The country now has the natural resources, the means, and the modern know-how to do it.  We only lack the will to do it.  Let us summon from the spiritual reservoir of the nation the collective will and determination to make our country self-sufficient in foodstuff, shelter, and clothing.  Our freedom must be nourished from the wreath of our own soil and by labor of our own manhood.  This is the key policy of this administration in the field of economics.  To this I give my heart and hand.

          International Reserves. – There has developed of late some apprehension arising out of the austerity measures adopted by the Administration to arrest further deterioration of our international reserves.  I hasten to tell the nation that while the present financial situation calls for sober and realistic reappraisal of our policies and actions, there is no real cause for alarm.  There has been no dissipation of our dollar reserves.  But in our over-eagerness and enthusiasm to push forward our industrialization program, we transgressed the eternal laws of measure and proportion.  As a retribution reality constrains us to restore the correct proportion between dollar reserves and industrialization and also between these reserves and bond issues and other forms of public borrowing.  To achieve this end, it behooves us to submit temporarily to measures of austerity, self-discipline and self-denial.  We have to sacrifice for the larger good of the greatest number.  Nonetheless, we must continue our industrialization program.