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<img src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-13/roxas-addressing-lawmakers-1946-sm.webp" alt="President Roxas addressing lawmakers in 1946" />
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(President Manuel Roxas addressing the lawmakers of the Second Commonwealth Congress of the Philippines during his first State of the Nation Address on June 3, 1946 at a converted school house at Lepanto Street, Manila.)
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Parity rights allowed Americans to enjoy the same rights and privileges of Filipino citizens in commerce and industry in the Philippines. Those rights also allowed Americans to practice their professions in the country.
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Roxas was elected president under the LP banner, and is considered the father of the LP. He died of cardiac arrest in 1948.
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President Diosdado Macapagal is another big name in the LP. After he lost his reelection bid to President Ferdinand Marcos in 1965, Macapagal styled himself as a staunch opponent of the Marcos regime.
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As the President of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, Macapagal managed to include a seemingly innocuous paragraph in the transitory provisions of the draft constitution. That paragraph guaranteed Macapagal a seat in the interim National Assembly, the unicameral legislature created in the draft charter. It was obviously Macapagal's free ticket to a seat in the legislature.
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In 1972, when the final draft of what was to become the 1973 Constitution was finished by the constitutional convention, Macapagal himself went to Malacañang to personally hand over copies of the draft charter to Marcos. A photograph of Macapagal shaking hands and smiling with Marcos during the turnover is available online.
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Marcos, however, discovered Macapagal's self-serving scheme. A referendum in 1976 authorized Marcos to replace the interim National Assembly created by Macapagal's constitutional convention with an interim Batasang Pambansa.
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His free ticket to a seat in the legislature aborted, Macapagal resumed his opposition to the Marcos administration.
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At the height of the campaign for the 2019 senatorial derby, LP candidate Manuel "Mar" Roxas II abandoned his running mates and began campaigning for himself. Roxas and the rest of his Otso Diretso ticket lost miserably in that election. It's no wonder that one of those Otso Diretso candidates abandoned the LP and is now running for senator under a different party.
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Historical records show the Liberal Party can never be trusted