At the height of radicalism in southern Mindanao, activists organized themselves into Makabayang Alyansa (MA, Patriotic Alliance), a pain in the neck for the government-backed Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL). This is distinct from Mindanao Alliance founded by Homobono Adaza, later Misamis Oriental governor, in 1978 to crack the Marcos political juggernaut in the 1978 Batasang Pambansa (BP) polls.
In preparations for the May 14, 1984, second BP elections, the MA, then chaired by Silvestre Bello III (later solicitor-general, justice chief and labor secretary) but submitted for recognition, decided not to support the parliamentary exercise by going all out on a boycott.
At the time, Bello’s former father-in-law and future interior and local government secretary, Davao City mayor Luis T. Santos, was identified with the United Democratic Opposition (Unido), another opposition league. He called for accord among the opposition and threatened to run for the Assembly if the anti-Marcos forces were not united.
Oddly enough, despite MA’s boycott movement, Bello’s group did not expect to meet a disaster, or what porch lizards dubbed as ‘colossal flop.’ In March 1984, the Commission on Elections in Manila accredited the part and classified it as a ‘dominant party’ in Region XI. As such, it was entitled to field candidates and was given authority to field its own inspectors and watchers.
This unsettling development was further aggravated when opposition coalition PDP-Laban, the same party used in 2016 to carry the presidential bid of Davao City mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte, nominated its leaders, leaders Zafiro L. Respicio and Samuel Occena, both lawyers, submitted their sworn nomination letters to the regional office of COMELEC in Davao City.
People’s Daily Forum, a rapid pro-opposition Davao periodical, called the event as ‘a direct rebuff to any appeal made by former mayor Luis Santos of UNIDO for all opposition groups to unite, and [to] put up common candidates.’
Instead of the Bello-instigated boycott, at least fifteen other aspirants, chiefly Davao’s political stalwarts from both sides of the fence, decided to actively participate in the May electoral exercise.
The re-election bets Manuel Garcia and Felicidad Santos KBL; former Davao City mayor Santos and Prospero Nograles of UNIDO; Davao City councilors Bievenido Amora, Valentin Banzon, Domingo Vidanes, and Dominador Zuno, Jr.; fiscal (later prosecutor) Jose B. Lopez; lawyers Medardo Cadiente, Patricio Calolot, Ed Caudao, and Mateo Delibero; and assistant city superintendent of city schools Enrique Lozada.
As then editor of the paper, we wrote an article titled ‘Boycott-KBL Connection,’ dissecting the claim the opposition was a victim of a ‘divide and rule’ tactic of the government:
‘One will shudder at the thought that in Manila, boycott has been reportedly supported by the ruling party. There has never been strong evidence linking the KBL to this… Many, however, are wont to believe that if this thing… is done, the opposition will have their necks deep in the mud. It will mean… the anti- administration candidates will lose a lot of following.
‘There is no doubt that the strengthening of boycott in any part of the country will, in effect, mean defeat for the opposition. No less than the number of voters will be affected, but also the overall percentage it will have in the final tally. Presupposing the KBL is having an “unholy alliance” with boycotters, how come the opposition have not known about this? And for KBL to get people [to] support, although remote, is tantamount to accepting the potency of the opposition.’
‘There are speculations, however, this boycott-KBL connection may have been surreptitiously created to further sag an already drooping image of the opposition.’
