Three Love Teams That Shaped Philippine History

Juan Luna [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Love teams are staples of Filipino culture. Some fans would go to great lengths to support their favorite love teams even to the point of violent confrontations against detractors. This article talks about a different sort of love team which had as much effect on the historical events that led to the Philippines of today

I was planning to write and publish this post for Valentine's day, unfortunately life interfered again and it didn't make it (as it always does when it comes to my writing). I wanted to write about the most enduring love teams in Philippine history to celebrate the "love" month. While browsing around the web though, I came across an article at filipiknow.net called "The Real Life Fairy Tale That Changed Philippine History Forever".

The article talked about the love story of the future Spanish king and queen who met in secret, got married and united the kingdoms of Aragon and Castille which eventually became Spain, the kingdom where the sun never sets. Their union eventually had a great impact on Philippine history. Mr. Jo Rodriguez's article inspired me to write beyond the cheesy Filipino love teams you have probably already read about a thousand times online. I dug a little bit deeper and decided to write about the love teams that greatly impacted the history of the Philippines. 

Rizal's Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara

They may be fictional but their tragic love story made a huge impact on the mindset of Spanish colonized Filipinos. Roughly speaking, Ibarra and Maria Clara did not really have a love team if you would compare it to how the term is used in Philippine showbiz. They were never allowed to be together. They never accomplished anything that involved each others team work. In fact after the first happy parts of Noli Me Tangere, they never saw each other again. However, it is their love story that fueled the whole plot of Rizal's novels culminating in a changed and bitter Crisostomo Ibarra in El Filibusterismo.

Both novels changed not only Rizal's and his family's life. It gave birth to a Filipino thinking that did not exist before, that of nationalism. The Philippines as we know is composed of 7000 plus islands. Before the coming of the Spanish colonists we were an archipelago of separate balangays which eventually grew into regionalistic schisms that the colonists did not discourage as it kept the Philippines divided among itself. Rizal's novels succeeded in knocking off bits of this wall to gradually seed the idea of one Philippine nation, perhaps not entirely free of the shadow of Mother Spain but at least equal in stature and rights as their "Spanish brothers".

Crisostomo Ibarra and Maria Clara did not only show the ills of colonial Philippine society, but among others, the futility of trying to change things in a peaceful manner. Rizal may or may not have intended it, but Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo where the sparks in the dark that ignited the Philippine Revolution that ended the Spanish occupation on Filipino soils.

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos

One might say that the Marcoses are the Philippine's very own royalties. They created their own Camelot on Philippine shores albeit benefiting only the chosen few known today as the Marcos cronies. To this day, Marcos loyalists claim that the Philippines has never seen a better president. All the other succeeding ones pale in comparison to the achievements of the great Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. They failed to mention though the deaths, disappearances, tortures and incarcerations that murked his 21-year presidency and what his regime cost the Philippine public, to the tune of P28.3 billion pesos in debts.

Their love story started innocently enough. A whirlwind romance commencing on a wedding after eleven days of courtship. In Ferdinand Marcos's words to Imelda, "It's not love at first sight, I've loved you all along." They were destined to meet, destined to rule and were destined to fall together.

Some believe that it was Imelda's excesses that alienated them from the Filipino people. Others believe that it was Imelda's excesses that put the Philippines on the map of the world. Rubbing faces with all the world's royalties, good or bad. Displaying opulence and extravagance that did not fit with the economic status of a struggling little country in Asia. Nevertheless, the world took notice and to the world Imelda was forever known as the president's wife with the 3000 shoes.

Ninoy and Cory Aquino

February isn't just the love month in the Philippines. It is also the month when we celebrate the EDSA revolution. Twenty nine years ago, on the 25th of this month the Marcos dictatorship ended after 3 days of peaceful demonstration by varied groups of Filipino society. A snap election brought the widow of assassinated Ninoy Aquino on the seat of the newly restored democracy.

The Ninoy and Cory union is a union of prominent Filipino political clans. In another world, Ninoy would have had a smooth career in Philippine politics perhaps even president with Cory by his side like she would have wanted to. Instead their union was pushed into the limelight of conflicting political ideas running head to head with a dictator that does not want to relinquish power. Their love story though short was filled with strength and passion not only for each other but for the Filipinos as well. "The Filipino is worth dying for." Ninoy Aquino's famous last word. 

Ninoy's was the lone voice loud enough to awaken the once again sleeping will of the Filipino people. And his wife Cory was the strength that kept him up when the world started tumbling down on him. He never lost his faith in the salvation of his people and his wife never lost faith in the soundness of his conviction. They both carried a yoke too heavy for any one man to carry but they persevered and in the end triumphed. 

You might say that all three love teams ended in tragedy one way or another. Fraught with death and heartache, struggles and challenges. However each death gave birth to hope and changes that greatly shaped the Philippine history as we know it today.