Who is arsenio lacson

Throughout his ten years as mayor, Lacson maintained his radio program, which now aired over DZBB and would also later be broadcast on television. The broadcasts were pre-recorded in order to edit out his expletives and occasional foul language.

He spoke out on air on national and international issues, and responded to critics who suggested that he confine himself to local Manila issues that he did not lose his right as a citizen to speak out on public affairs upon his election as mayor.

In , upon the filing of a criminal libel complaint against Lacson by a judge whom he criticized on his radio show, Quirino suspended Lacson from office. Lacson remained suspended for 73 days until the Supreme Court voided the suspension order. Though the hard-drinking, gun-toting Lacson projected an image of machismo, the author Nick Joaquin observed:. Lacson has sedulously cultivated the "yahoo" manner, the siga-siga style, but one suspects that the bristles on the surface do not go all the way down; for this guy with a pug's battered nose comes from a good family and went to the right schools; this character who talks like a stevedore is a literate, even a literary, man; and this toughie who has often been accused of being too chummy with the underworld belonged to the most "idealistic" of the wartime underground groups: the Free Philippines.

In , Lacson actively campaigned for Nacionalista presidential candidate Ramon Magsaysay , who would go on to defeat the incumbent Quirino. After President Magsaysay's death in a plane crash months before the presidential election, Lacson claimed that Magsaysay had offered to name him as the Nacionalista candidate for Vice President, in lieu of incumbent Vice-President Carlos P. According to Lacson, he declined the offer, telling Magsaysay "the time has not yet come".

Nonetheless, after Magsaysay's death, Lacson turned against the newly installed President Garcia, and considered running against Garcia in the election. In April , Lacson went on a national tour in order to gauge his nationwide strength as a presidential candidate. While the tour indicated considerable popularity of Lacson in the provinces, his potential run was hampered by a lack of funding and a party machinery.

It was believed that Lacson would have easily won the presidency in had he obtained the nomination of either his Nacionalista Party, then committed to Garcia, or the rival Liberal Party, which would select Jose Yulo as its candidate.

The American expatriate and industrialist Harry Stonehill later claimed that Lacson had asked him to finance his campaign against Garcia. When Stonehill refused, Lacson decided not to run, and thereafter, staged a rally at Plaza Miranda where he denounced the United States and what he perceived as the subservience of the Philippine government to the Americans.

In his career, Lacson was frequently tagged as anti-American, and he had criticized the United States for having no foreign policy "but just a pathological fear of communism". Garcia won in the election, and Lacson became a persistent critic of the President throughout his four-year term.

He was named Macapagal's national campaign manager and was attributed as "the moving spirit behind a nationwide drive that led to Macapagal's victory at the polls".

Not long after Macapagal's election, Lacson returned to the Nacionalista Party and became increasingly critical of the President, explaining "I only promised to make Macapagal President, not agree with him forever. As mayor, Lacson had faced several attempts on his life. He twice disarmed gunmen who had attacked him, and survived an ambush as he was driving home one night.

Yet it would be a stroke that ended Lacson's life at the age of He was fatally stricken at a hotel suite while in the company of a popular local movie star. Lacson was buried at the Manila North Cemetery.

A statue in his honor was likewise erected in present-day Plaza Lacson, which is behind Sta. Cruz church. Lacson was part of the collegiate team of the Ateneo de Manila University. He played at the halfback position. He was also part of the Philippine national football team and participated in tournaments such as the Far Eastern Championship Games. Lacson joined the armed resistance against the Japanese military which had invaded the Philippines in late He joined the Free Philippines underground movement, and acted as a lead scout during the Battle of Manila.

Lacson also fought in the battle for the liberation of Baguio on April 26, Years later, when asked by Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi if he had learned Japanese during the war, Lacson responded, "I was too busy shooting at Japanese to learn any. Lacson resumed his career in journalism after the war.

He also had his own radio program called In This Corner , where he delivered social and political commentary. Lacson became popular as a result of his radio show, but also earned the ire of President Manuel Roxas , whom he nicknamed "Manny the Weep".

In , President Roxas ordered Lacson's suspension from the airwaves. Ickes defended Roxas's action and in turn drew rebuke for such defense from the popular radio commentator Walter Winchell. In the general elections , Lacson ran for and won a seat in the House of Representatives , representing the 2nd District of Manila.

He was elected under the banner of the Nacionalista Party. During the two years he served in the House, Lacson was cited by the media assigned to cover Congress as among the "10 Most Useful Congressmen" for "his excellent display as a fiscalizer and a lawmaker". It was only in that the office of Manila mayor became an elective position, following the amendment of its city charter. Representative Lacson successfully unseated incumbent Manila Mayor Manuel de la Fuente in the first ever mayoralty election in the city.

He assumed the office of mayor on January 1, He was re-elected in and He immediately became known as a tough-minded reformist mayor, and in the s, he and Zamboanga City Mayor Cesar Climaco were touted as exemplars of good local governance. Climaco, in fact, was praised as "The Arsenio Lacson of the South". Lacson embarked on crusades to maintain peace and order and good government in Manila.

He fired city employees for incompetence, and dismissed corrupt policemen. He personally led raids on brothels masquerading as massage parlors and on unauthorized market vendors. Lacson ordered bulldozers to clear a squatter colony in Malate that had stood since shortly after the war. Lacson established a mobile car patrol unit that patrolled the city at all hours, and he himself would patrol the city at nights in a black police car.

Lacson also established the Manila Zoo and the first city underpass , located in Quiapo , posthumously named after him. Throughout his ten years as mayor, Lacson maintained his radio program, which now aired over DZBB and would also later be broadcast on television. The broadcasts were pre-recorded in order to edit out his expletives and occasional foul language. He spoke out on air on national and international issues, and responded to critics who suggested that he confine himself to local Manila issues that he did not lose his right as a citizen to speak out on public affairs upon his election as mayor.

In , upon the filing of a criminal libel complaint against Lacson by a judge whom he criticized on his radio show, Quirino suspended Lacson from office.

Lacson remained suspended for 73 days until the Supreme Court voided the suspension order. Though the hard-drinking, gun-toting Lacson projected an image of machismo , the author Nick Joaquin observed:. Lacson has sedulously cultivated the "yahoo" manner, the siga-siga style, but one suspects that the bristles on the surface do not go all the way down; for this guy with a pug's battered nose comes from a good family and went to the right schools; this character who talks like a stevedore is a literate, even a literary, man; and this toughie who has often been accused of being too chummy with the underworld belonged to the most "idealistic" of the wartime underground groups: the Free Philippines.

In , Lacson actively campaigned for Nacionalista presidential candidate Ramon Magsaysay , who would go on to defeat the incumbent Quirino. After President Magsaysay's death in a plane crash months before the presidential election , Lacson claimed that Magsaysay had offered to name him as the Nacionalista candidate for vice president , in lieu of incumbent Vice-President Carlos P.

According to Lacson, he declined the offer, telling Magsaysay "the time has not yet come". But not mayors. Estrada certainly feels an affinity with Lacson. In , Estrada inaugurated a statue of Lacson at the very center of the plaza in front of city hall.

Lacson, like Duterte, tried congress but preferred being mayor. Estrada was a film star. All were good, flamboyant copy. I love history and biography and am always sad that there are quite few about the Philippines and Filipinos. Most of them are academic books, many of which are difficult to read even for a history buff. Most of the rest — especially biographies — are family-funded books. But because they are family-funded, they tend to be of people whose families are or have remained rich enough to publish a book.