(Editor’s note: The percentage of votes given to a winner can also inspire a leader’s conduct in office as noted by the author.)

In the old days leading lights in politics, the bench and bar taught their favorite subjects in law schools then located in Ermita, Intramuros, and within the city’s commercial sections for the benefit of working students.

Mentors all Senators and congressmen were law practitioners and the brightest of them shared their experience and wisdom with students as professors and authors. Among them were: Laurel, Recto, Tañada, etc. Among the justices and judges who attracted students were: Roberto Concepcion (chief justice), Associate Justices J.B.L. Reyes, Arsenio P. Dizon, Alex Reyes, and CFI judges like Ruperto Kapunan Jr., Magno Gatmaitan, Ricardo C. Puno, Felix V. Makasiar, etc.

Backstory Senator Tañada (Constitutional Law) had the patience to educate students with backstories of cases. In the late 1930s, he noted, one bridge near Malacañang was being built when a huge log fell into the swollen Pasig. One laborer tried to retrieve it but drowned in the process. The man’s family sued for compensation with damages, but the CFI judge found the man negligent and dismissed the case without a fuzz.

But a conflagration had soon developed when the fiery Quezon, on his first term, referred to the decision as a clear miscarriage of justice and unloaded a truckload of “pun____” on the judge and other judges with a similar frame of mind.

Uprising of bench and bar

The newspapers had headlined the comments of leading members of the bar citing judicial independence and the dogma on separation of powers. Quezon’s wrath, whether planned or sudden, was not appeased. He defended his right to comment and censure with one line: “My oath of office requires me to ‘do justice to every man’ after defending and preserving the Constitution.”

On appeal, the CFI ruling was reversed, and within a reasonable period the CA justice who penned the new decision was promoted to the Supreme Court where he retired as Chief Justice.

Basic greatness

Quezon’s view of the case was moved by compassion for the laborer, and what is simply right. But Prof. Tañada told his class: “It was basic greatness that moved Quezon to lambaste the erring judge. His view was popular, right and great.”

There was no opinion poll in Quezon’s time. If there was his approval/trust rating would have soared to 90 plus percent, the world’s highest.

More than tradition

Historians have stopped asking anymore why Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president four times – in November, 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. The US Congress proposed on March 24, 1947, ratified February 27, 1954, Amendment XXII providing that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...” This amendment was intended to translate the two-term tradition, started by Washington, into a firm constitutional limit. Congress also knew it was a democratic limit to greatness.

Biggest memorial

On May 2, 1997, the FDR Memorial was opened to the public. I saw a never-ending stream of tourists viewing nine bronze sculptural ensembles depicting FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt and events from the Great Depression and World War II. The three-hectare memorial is located near the Tidal Basin in a park-like setting and is wheelchair accessible.

Among the statues was an African American playing a saxophone at FDR’s funeral with tears streaming down his cheeks. FDR’s greatness mostly was in championing the common man in the famous First 100 Days from assumption of office on March 4, 1933.

Trust

Three great Filipinos contested the first Commonwealth election on September 17, 1935. The final count from 1,021,445 votes cast gave Quezon 694,104 (68 percent), Aguinaldo 179,390 (18 percent), and Aglipay 147,951 (14 percent).

Magsaysay’s mandate in November, 1953, was a high of 68.88 percent of 4,228,983 votes or a fraction higher than Quezon’s best score against two heroes of the Revolution.

With one big difference: Magsaysay’s record was made in a two-party contest between NP and LP only, while Quezon was opposed by two giants in our history – Aguinaldo and Aglipay.

Praise unnecessary

If only Quezon and Aguinaldo were the contenders in 1935 the final score would have boosted Quezon’s record by five to 10 percent or a record 73 percent to 78 percent of the national vote.

Electoral support is material to any leader’s trust and approval ratings that would render absolutely unnecessary any self-serving ads or praise. (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).