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(Presidents Ramon Magsaysay and Elpidio Quirino)
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After three days, Padilla's deceased and mutilated body was found. Magsaysay came to Magallon, had the body taken to and examined in Manila, and ordered an investigation. In all fairness, despite the political connection, Quirino suspended the governor and allowed the process that convicted Lacson and 22 others for the crime.


But subsequent events would make Magsaysay turn against his political mentor. In speeches, he recalled carrying Padilla's mutilated body, saying, "Ang bangkay sa aking mga bisig ay hindi katawan ni Moises Padilla kundi ang malamig na bangkay ng ating Inang Bayan."


What led to this betrayal by a son of his political father?


In 1952, the older brother of Quirino's son-in-law, Dindo Gonzalez, and Central Intelligence Agency man Col. Edward Lansdale urged Magsaysay to go to Mexico with the president's daughter Vicky and husband Chito to be the speaker of the Lions Club's World Convention. But before reaching the convention, Magsaysay had a secret meeting with United States Pentagon officials and was awarded a doctor of laws honoris causa by the Fordham University, the same honor accorded to Quirino. Then Dindo solicited from fellow club members $2 million worth of agricultural equipment and machinery for his Huk rehabilitation program. The CIA was keen on removing Quirino because he had a more independent foreign policy where the priority was the country's relationship with the United Nations rather than the US.

Returning home by June, with international exposure, the reluctant Magsaysay started seriously considering that maybe this was his chance to be of help to more people, using the Americans, and become president himself. According to S. P. Lopez, by November, Magsaysay had cemented the support of all the major Nacionalista leaders: Jose P. Laurel, Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada and party president Eulogio "Amang" Rodriguez, and signed entered a top-secret agreement with them to be the Nacionalista candidate.


But Magsaysay remained a member of the Liberal Party and Defense secretary. According to his daughter Mila, he was afraid to hurt Quirino because he really liked him. Quirino dismissed the stories even when told by Tañada himself. "He'll never betray me," he told his brother. "I have proven his loyalty."


But one time Quirino invited Magsaysay to join him in Cavite, Magsaysay phoned in sick. On his way back, however, the President saw him driving around Dewey Boulevard. Quirino was so irritated that he said at a cocktail party that night: 

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"Magsaysay knows nothing about affairs of state, or how to conduct them - he's good only for the Huks."

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Magsaysay wrote a letter of resignation, but Quirino did not open it. After four months, Magsaysay announced his candidacy in the Nacionalista Party. According to Quirino's granddaughter Ruby, Magsaysay's betrayal was, "Isa sa pinakamasaklap na hindi niya matanggap."


Aside from the Americans, the Catholic Church wanted Quirino out for not supporting religious instruction in public schools.


By June 12, 1953, Quirino was excused from the presidential campaign and brought to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US for an ulcer operation where he pardoned the Japanese war criminals in the Philippines as a gesture of forgiveness. As he was away, Magsaysay was already changing the face of Philippine election campaigning into a more personal one, complete with a CIA-devised jingle. The difference between the two men became clear. And although both did not personally attack each other, Quirino was on the losing end.


Even during their friendly exchange, as Quirino turned over the Palace to Magsaysay, where the former asked the latter to try the office chair for size, Quirino remained resentful of Magsaysay. In his unfinished memoirs, his first chapter was devoted to Magsaysay being worshiped as a hero for promises he could never deliver.

The events that led to the rift between President Quirino and his Defense Secretary Magsaysay