The ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world. 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 2 6/4/17 8:37 AM First published in Singapore in 2017 by ISEAS Publishing 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Singapore 119614 E-mail: [email protected] Website: <http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg> All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. © 2017 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author and his interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters. ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Fernandez, Erwin S. The Diplomat-Scholar : A Biography of Leon Ma. Guerrero 1. Guerrero, Leon Ma. (Leon Maria), 1915–1982. 2. Authors, Filipino—Biography. 3. Ambassadors—Philippines—Biography. I. Title. DS686.6 G93F36 2017 ISBN 978-981-47-6222-9 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-47-6243-4 (e-book, PDF) Cover photo: Ambassador Leon Ma. Guerrero poses in front of the Palacio de Oriente at the Plaza de Oriente where the statue of Felipe IV can be seen on the background. Reproduced with kind permission of Enrique L. Locsin and Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. of the Philippines Free Press. Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 4 6/4/17 8:37 AM Engr Ely V. Fernandez tan Mrs Florida S. Fernandez 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 5 6/4/17 8:37 AM 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 6 6/4/17 8:37 AM Contents Preface ix Prologue 1 Chronology 11 I Ermita and Santa Cruz to Intramuros: Between Literary and Legal Career 1 Bourgeois Ermita: Birth and Boyhood 19 2 Education under American Jesuits 30 3 The Humorist as Critic, Writer and Actor 39 4 Juggling Law and Journalism on the Eve of War 48 II To Tokyo and Back: The Making of a Diplomat 5 The Assistant Solicitor 67 6 From Intelligence Officer in Bataan to the Return of Ignacio Javier 73 7 Second, then First Secretary 84 8 At the Home Office: The Diplomat as Historian 98 III Going In, then Out of the Political Jungle: Padre Burgos to Arlegui 9 The Legal Counsel, Professor and Translator 107 10 The Foreign Policy Critic and Spokesman 119 11 “Asia for the Asians” or How to Leave Arlegui in Six Months 128 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 7 6/4/17 8:37 AM viii contents IV London and Madrid: The Philippines in a Resurgent Asia 12 At the Court of Saint James 153 13 A Verbal Tussle in the UN 172 14 The Biographer 178 15 At Franco Country 193 16 In Search of the Burgos Trial Records 202 17 Home Leave in Preparation for a State Visit 212 V New Delhi to Belgrade: The Philippines towards Non-Alignment 18 Homecoming to Asia at Nehruvian India 223 19 “Diplomacy of Development” and Other Speeches 233 20 The Foreign Policy Rescuer and Again, Critic 241 21 The Diplomat as Efficient Intellectual-Bureaucrat 252 22 Endorsing Non-alignment amid Personal Crisis 263 23 Flirting with Dictators 270 24 Martial Law Propagandist 281 25 At Tito’s Pre-Balkanized Yugoslavia 288 Epilogue 295 Glossary 313 List of Abbreviations 317 Bibliography 319 Index 341 About the Author 360 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 8 6/4/17 8:37 AM Preface Since 2010 when I finished an early version of my full-length work on Leon Ma. Guerrero, I managed to come up with a number of articles on Guerrero. In the meantime, the plan to publish the biography opened up after having submitted the manuscript for consideration by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) (now known as ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute) in Singapore and having received a favourable review in 2014. In 2015, Guerrero’s family and heirs commemorated his birth centenary at a time when the revision process did not take off. Early in 2016 when I have the luxury of time to fine-tune and rework the manuscript, the outcome is this biography. As the making of this biography is a journey in itself, I could not have arrived at my destination without the encouragement and help along the way of my family, especially my mom and dad, and relatives, especially Mrs Martha S. Rosa; my former teachers and colleagues, Dr Milagros C. Guerrero, Dr Ma. Bernadette G.L. Abrera, Dr Evelyn A. Miranda, Dr Ferdinand C. Llanes, Dr Bienvenido Lumbera, Dr Ricardo T. Jose, Prof Herman Joseph H. Kraft, Dr Maria Luisa T. Camagay, Dr Filomeno V. Aguilar, Dr Motoe Terami-Wada, Dr Floro C. Quibuyen, Dr Jaime B. Veneracion, Dr Jonathan Chua, Mr Phillip Ramirez, Prof. Elizabeth Siler, late Dr Josefina Cabigon, Dr Laura Lee Junker, Dr Rachel Harrison, Prof Henry David Burton; Mr Alfredo Liongoren and late Mrs Norma Liongoren; Mr Marciano de Borja; Guerrero’s immediate family, Margaret Burke Guerrero and David Guerrero; Mrs Carmen Guerrero Nakpil, Mrs Gemma Cruz Araneta; Prof Ajit Singh Rye, late Fr John N. Schumacher, S.J., former Ambassador Juan A. Ona, late Fr. James Reuter, S.J., Mrs Ljiljana Plavsic, Mr Abelardo Caro, Ms Rahilah Yusuf and other helpful staff of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Along the journey were crucial brief or long stopovers at the National Library of the Philippines, the National Archives of the Philippines in Paco, Manila; University of the Philippines Main Library and its constituent libraries headed at that time by Prof. Salvacion Arlante, Ateneo de Manila University Archives, De la Salle University Library; Far Eastern University library, Lyceum of the Philippines library, Instituto Cervantes library, 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 9 6/4/17 8:37 AM x preface the Manila Bulletin under its editor-in-chief, Dr. Crispulo J. Icban, the National Historical Institute, now the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center and the Lopez Museum and Library. It could not have been bearable without the pleasant company of Marjorie D. Pamintuan, Manuel Paner, Albuen Jude Fiel, Deo Navaja, Jeoffrey Liboon, Rolando Esteban, Edwin Valientes, Renato Pelorina, Jaynee Tamboong, Jennifer Guman, Rosabella Mendez, Vincent Isles, Luis Lisa, Dido Miranda, Russel Lomboy and Rosabella D. Fernandez. In the course of it, short trips were made when I read parts of Chapters 23, 24 and parts of the Epilogue at the first international conference on Philippine-Latin Americans relations hosted by the Philippine Academic Consortium on Latin American Studies (PACLAS) at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and when I delivered at the National Conference on Rizal Law in Claro M. Recto Conference Hall, UP Diliman Campus an earlier version of Chapter 14, which was revised and published in Philippine Studies. Chapters 1 to 4 dealing with Guerrero’s early years and Chapter 6 on his war-time years were not read in any conference but revised, submitted to and published respectively in Asian Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities by the Ateneo de Manila University and South East Asia Research by the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I might have missed people who were part of the making of this biography; I regret the omission. Nonetheless, I am grateful for all the support of those named and nameless. However, they do not bear any responsibility for all interpretive and factual errors, which I claim to be mine alone. 16-1333 00 The Diplomat-Scholar.indd 10 6/4/17 8:37 AM Prologue On the morning of 19 June 1982, President Ferdinand E. Marcos awarded the Gawad Mabini, the highest decoration in the Foreign Service, to a shrunken man on his deathbed. The day was special for an avid Rizalist. That barong-clad man who once displayed his brilliance and audacity was Leon Ma. Guerrero III. He was far from his old self, the tall dashing man who had exchanged barbs with foreigners in defence of the Filipino. In that hospital room, close family, a few friends and himself listened to Prime Minister Cesar Virata declare that he had “helped set the tone of Philippine foreign policy” and that “many of his beliefs have become part of the parcel of the foreign policy of the Republic….”1 Being a writer was the other side of Guerrero. Shortly after his death, one author published an intriguing article on what he called “the great switcheroo of eighty-two”, finding the National Artist for Literature award to Carlos P. Romulo unmerited and that Guerrero deserved it more than Romulo because of his lasting contributions to Philippine literature.