Christian Democrat Envoy

the DC played a dominant role in the politics of Italy for 50 years from its inception in 1944 until its final demise in 1994. The party was nicknamed the White Whale (balena bianca).

It was succeeded by a string of smaller parties, including the Italian People’s Party, the Christian Democratic Centre, the United Christian Democrats, and the Union of Christian and Centre Democrats. Today, former Christian Democrats are spread among the centre-right Forza Italia, New Centre-Right, Union of the Centre and Populars for Italy, the centrist Civic Choice, the centre-left Democratic Party and Democratic Centre, and several minor parties.

Christian Democracy was introduced into the Philippines in the 50s and 60s by the likes of Raul Manglapus and some Jesuits such as Frs. Horacio de la Costa and Pacifico Ortiz. It flourished among intellectuals in the 70s and 80s leading to the formation of the National Union of Christian Democrats (NUCD). The NUCD and its counterpart, the United Muslim Democrats of the Philippines (UMDP), adopted Fidel Ramos as its standard bearer in the election of 1992. I was proud to be the emissary to make the offer to the future President. By a twist of fate, however, the Lakas Party under Jose de Venecia, which merged with the NUCD-UMDP, became the surviving party.

Christian Democrat Envoy

When I was informed by the Foreign Secretary Raul Manglapus at a party caucus that he wished to send me to the Republic of Italy as Envoy to represent the country, I was pleasantly surprised. Queried about his decision, he elaborated that he wanted a partymate like myself to act as liaison officer between the local party and the CD international headquarters in Brussels. This would be cost-effective for the party since the Belgian capital was only a couple of hours of flying time from my intended posting.

Assured that this was already a done deal since he had the complete trust and confidence of President Cory, I decided to hit the ground running—that is to get ready to face the grilling by the Commission of Appointments in Congress. I was told that the Commission asked hard questions to test the mettle of diplomatic nominees. And so I hit the books reading up on the history of the Italian people, its economy and even social mores.

And then followed the tedious process of the legislative confirmation. My confirmation was delayed for almost half a year mainly because there was a standoff between the Chairman of the Senate Committee for Foreign Affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The casus belli was the insistence of the committee chairman to approve not only the nomination of the chief of mission but also his diplomatic assignment.

I also had a slight problem with a host of congressmen who had approved my nomination. It was only on this occasion that I realized what a solid fraternity the House of Representatives has. My feud with Congress started when I took on a handful of representatives who wanted the export of buko for Taiwan, which was on an export quota system, to be approved by the Philippine Coconut Authority. At the time, I could not approve the request of the members of Congress to get the export license since I had decided to distribute the quotas among coconut cooperatives so that the proceeds of the export sales could accrue directly to the farmers. After an attempted bribery by a congressman and threats to cut down my budgetary appropriation (which did not change my decision), congressmen resorted to a signature campaign among their colleagues to stop my appointment to Rome. In fact about 150 signatures appeared on the list of congressmen who were against my confirmation. Fortunately for me, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and some influential leaders of the chamber persuaded their colleagues to drop the opposition. It was