- 1 year ago
The youthful presidential candidate Ramon Magsaysay won by a landslide in 1953, propelled by various campaign gimmicks, including the first viral campaign jingle. That catchy tune was even revived during the 1986 people power revolution.
This is the first episode of the Philippine election history series of the Howie Severino Presents podcast.
Mambo Magsaysay — Ang unang viral campaign jingle
Nag landslide victory ang kandidatong si Ramon Magsaysay noong 1953, gamit ang maraming gimik sa kampanya, tulad ng isang trendy na jingle. Binuhay muli ito noong 1986 people power revolution.
Ito ang unang episode ng election history podcast ng Howie Severino Presents.
This is the first episode of the Philippine election history series of the Howie Severino Presents podcast.
Mambo Magsaysay — Ang unang viral campaign jingle
Nag landslide victory ang kandidatong si Ramon Magsaysay noong 1953, gamit ang maraming gimik sa kampanya, tulad ng isang trendy na jingle. Binuhay muli ito noong 1986 people power revolution.
Ito ang unang episode ng election history podcast ng Howie Severino Presents.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, Podmates! I'm Howie Severino, and welcome to our new podcast series.
00:16In the coming weeks, we will bring to life the history of the Philippines election.
00:23The Philippines came at that time with a lot of bloodshed.
00:27We can say that it was a long period of hardship.
00:29The Second World War ended.
00:31We were in the Reconstruction Period.
00:34A lot of Filipinos suffered during that time.
00:36And the question of our countrymen is, how are we going to get back up?
00:39We will discuss its various aspects.
00:43There has been a lot of jingles over the years,
00:46but I don't think any jingle has been able to duplicate how effective this particular piece was.
00:53Both in the message, both in the fact that it is unoriginal.
01:03In the 1950s, Mambo Beat became popular on the radio and nightclubs.
01:09In the 1953 election campaign, there was a song that became popular and went viral on the streets.
01:40Mambo Magsaysay is the very first campaign jingle used in a presidential campaign.
01:45And until now, it is still one of the most well-known jingles in the history of the Philippines election.
01:53The song was composed by Raul Manglapus, a former senator and secretary of foreign affairs.
02:00The song was composed by Raul Manglapus, a former senator and secretary of foreign affairs.
02:05Raul Manglapus, a former senator and secretary of foreign affairs, who has a talent for music.
02:12Okay, we're here with Francis Manglapus, the son of former Senator Raul Manglapus, who was also a composer.
02:20He composed Mambo Magsaysay, the first presidential campaign jingle.
02:25And we're going to be talking to Francis about that.
02:28So, Francis, tell us about the origins of this campaign jingle, Mambo Magsaysay, that your dad composed.
02:34There was a formal request by Magsaysay for my dad to participate in the campaign.
02:41Actually head the Magsaysay for President movement.
02:44My dad remembers the day clearly because he was sick with the flu.
02:48And it was at the same day, it was the same time he bought his first air conditioner at the time, which is 1952, I guess, or 52, 53, something like that.
02:59Must have been a new contraption back then.
03:01Yeah, exactly. He really knew.
03:03So he was home with the flu and his close friend from Ateneo in the war years, Magsaysay Manahan, came with Magsaysay to our house in San Juan.
03:14And that's where Magsaysay formally asked him to head the Magsaysay for President movement.
03:21And of course, my father readily agreed because early on already, everybody saw that he was a rising star.
03:28He would be an excellent president.
03:31And also at that time, he had already composed the song, Mambo Magsaysay, in anticipation of his run.
03:40He was already tinkering.
03:41May have not been final yet, but he'd already done the basic structure of the song at that time.
03:47So your dad must have been pretty young, no?
03:50This is the early 50s, no? 1952 ba?
03:53Yes.
03:54Why was he the one chosen for this important role?
03:57It wasn't like he was already a senior political leader at that time, no?
04:01He was a fairly young person.
04:04Yes, you're right.
04:05Why was he chosen?
04:06Well, he was in his mid-30s then.
04:08I think at that time, he was actually teaching constitutional law at Ateneo.
04:13But I think Magsaysay had a special appeal to the youth.
04:18He was very popular among young people because of his anti-corruption crusade.
04:24I think Magsaysay wanted to capture that particular voting bloc, solidify it, if you will.
04:31Also, I wouldn't say he was not comfortable, but he wanted another organization separate from the Nationalista Party.
04:41Because as you know, he was a newly recruited member of the Nationalista Party.
04:47Recto, Tanyada, I think Laurel asked him to join the Nationalista Party.
04:54And he did, but he also wanted his own separate organization that he could really count on, separate from the Nationalista Party structure.
05:05And he felt that it, being led by young people, could give it a special character.
05:11That he felt could be a shining, push the momentum for his campaign.
05:18And that's why I think he approached my father to be part of it.
05:21So he had this talent for politics, but all this time, he also had a talent for music.
05:27So tell us about that. What was your father's musical background?
05:33Well, my dad's music has always been part of his public awareness, political stance.
05:38He always liked to do music for stuff that he was close to or believed in.
05:44But going back, he had an ear for music because he was born with a very bad eye.
05:50And you know, as the saying goes, if you lose one sense, you gain it in the other.
05:54And I think when he lost that one eye, the vision of one eye, he gained a more sensitive hearing.
06:04And that's why he could play music by ear. He would just hear it and he could play it.
06:09He ended up even composing.
06:11When he was young? I mean, he already showed this musical talent.
06:14When he was young. I mean, I hear stories about my grandmother asking a piano teacher to come and teach him how to play the piano.
06:21And then the piano player would play a piece and he would just immediately play it right after just by listening to it.
06:27So the piano teacher just said, forget it. Let him just play on his own. Just play it by ear if he just plays it.
06:35So he never learned how to read?
06:37He never really learned how to read music. It was all by ear.
06:40He would always have to, at later years, whenever he would compose something, he would have to hire somebody to listen to it and write it down.
06:47So he would kind of just hum it?
06:49Yeah, hum it.
06:50And then someone would note it on a piece of paper?
06:52It's not uncommon. A lot of musicians do it that way. They're gifted. That's the way they do it.
06:59But going back, the first major piece that he did was for his school, Ateneo de Manila.
07:08When he was graduating from college, he decided to compose the Blue Eagle, the King.
07:16And it's still being used, no? You still hear it at basketball games?
07:20Not as often as before, but it's still there.
07:23Oh, you still hear it a lot? I mean, at every game. In fact, I attended a reunion of my high school batch. It was sung again.
07:31So music has always been part of his public career.
07:37He felt that when you believe in something, you put all your talents into it.
07:42And since he was gifted with this musical composing talent, it would always be part of whatever cause that he was fighting for.
07:51During his school days, he wrote for the school.
07:55During the war years, he wrote songs as a guerrilla to help cheer up the guerrilla fighters.
08:03During political campaigns, particularly the one for Magsaysay, that's when he wrote Mambo Mambo Magsaysay.
08:10So why was that the first jingle?
08:15So your dad had been composing all of these years, but Mambo Magsaysay was known as the first presidential campaign jingle.
08:24Because I understand Mayor Arsenio Lacson had one just a few years before.
08:29But that was the first one for the presidential candidate.
08:32So how did your father think that music and this kind of music would help in the campaign?
08:41Mambo was becoming the new thing at that time. Very popular, very catchy.
08:45And I think that's when he felt that let's try something different.
08:49Let's try to make it more modern, more upbeat to capture the new generation, to get the new generation into it.
08:56And that's when he experimented with the Mambo style.
09:00Mambo Mambo Magsaysay, Mambo Mambo Magsaysay,
09:05We will not go, what we Magsaysay.
09:10Not expecting the sudden popularity of Mambo Magsaysay,
09:14there's another song that Mayor Lacson composed for the campaign,
09:18the We Want Magsaysay, which is more traditional.
09:24Man who serve without the nerve to cheat eternally,
09:31Who do the job and never rob the public treasury,
09:36Only the man of destiny,
09:40Our need will satisfy,
09:44This is the pride for you and me,
09:48We want Magsaysay.
09:52The one which was the traditional was the usual traditional march-y song,
09:57you know, very, you know,
09:59Pam, pam, pam, pam, very normal.
10:03But then he did something that was more for the masses.
10:08So he really prepared both.
10:10But the first song, since that was the traditional way of doing campaign songs
10:16or lifting up morale of soldiers and so forth and so on,
10:19that's what was supposed to be the main song.
10:24And then this is going to be like the salim pusa because it has a flip side.
10:28But the other one, the Mambo became the bigger hit automatically.
10:33It's the one that really clicked, particularly with the masses.
10:37So that's how it happened.
10:39The flip side, I think when you have to release a record,
10:42there's a flip side.
10:44So I think that's what happened.
10:45This became the flip side, but it became the more popular one.
10:48And you had said that your father used an alias
10:54when he claimed ownership of the song.
10:59As the composer, he used the name Roberto Suarez.
11:03I think he was using that alias even during the war
11:07when he was writing propaganda material.
11:10That was his pen name.
11:12And I think he decided, I don't know why,
11:15maybe the Jesuits didn't like the idea because he was still teaching at Titeo
11:19that he should be composing songs for a candidate.
11:23I don't know.
11:24But so I think that when he originally released that song,
11:29he used his pen name that he used during the war,
11:33which was Roberto Suarez.
11:34That's how it happened.
11:35But eventually, people knew that it was him.
11:38Yeah, but it's interesting because you said in other songs,
11:40I mean, he used his real name.
11:43Blue Eagle, the King.
11:44Obviously, he used his real name for that.
11:49But here, I'm just curious.
11:51Because Mambo Magsaysay, the way it's worded at least,
11:58and maybe even the beat,
12:00was probably not the kind of song the American Jesuits would approve of.
12:04That's what I'm speculating.
12:06If he was teaching at the Ateneo.
12:09It was not pure in language.
12:16But as you said, he had to appeal to the masses.
12:20At the same time, Ateneo educates elites.
12:23Exactly.
12:29I speculate that probably is the reason,
12:31although I'm not really sure if it was that serious.
12:34Maybe he just didn't want,
12:36he preferred to be anonymous at that time.
12:38I don't know.
12:39He preferred to use his pen name,
12:40which is the same name he used when he was writing propaganda against the Japanese.
12:45It also shows your dad's versatility.
12:47Because as you said, his first big hit was Blue Eagle, the King,
12:52which was a marching song.
12:54But it's really for a school band.
12:59And I know that when that song,
13:01the students in the stands, they'd be going like this.
13:04So it's really more militaristic, right?
13:07Yes.
13:11In a way, it's the opposite of a marching song.
13:13It's like pop.
13:14At that time, it was like pop.
13:15Exactly.
13:17So what was his influence?
13:18Your dad was just listening to all kinds of music.
13:21Yeah, he was listening to all kinds of music.
13:25He liked jazz, mambo, the Latin influence, so forth and so on.
13:31Mambo was Latin?
13:32Yeah, basically, yeah.
13:36And as I said, that was the in thing.
13:38Now, it's APT.
13:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:42That's the in thing.
13:43Times have changed.
13:44But in other words, during that time, 1952,
13:47it was kind of ahead of its time, no?
13:49It was the in thing at that time.
13:51I think what made it unique was it to be used for a presidential jingle.
13:56And I think it was not only the music.
13:59It was also the message.
14:00It was also the lyrics, which was very catchy.
14:03So he had the talent of not only providing the lyrics,
14:07but also putting together the right words.
14:09He also wrote the words.
14:10He also wrote the words.
14:11Okay.
14:12He would always write the words.
14:14In 1945, after World War II in the Philippines,
14:18the fight between the Filipinos and the Americans against the Japanese was fierce.
14:23And Manila was almost unrecognizable due to the fierce fighting.
14:28So we can see that the Filipinos came from the Philippines at that time.
14:32He ran as president in a bloody, or let's say, a long period of hardship
14:39because of World War II.
14:41So we're in the Reconstruction Period.
14:44A lot of Filipinos suffered then.
14:46And yes, the question of our fellow Filipinos is, how are we going to get up?
14:52This is Arjan Aguirre, a political scientist at Ateneo de Manila University.
14:58Tell us about the atmosphere of Philippine society back then.
15:03How could Magsaysay emerge from that atmosphere?
15:07So it's post-war.
15:09We were one of the most destroyed countries in the world,
15:14particularly Manila.
15:16This is less than 10 years later.
15:20What I want to point out is that our fellow Filipinos at that time
15:25were slowly recovering.
15:28But again, the problem with development is its effects.
15:32They are not that felt easily by the people,
15:37especially in a post-World War situation
15:42wherein a lot of people were constructing bridges, roads, etc.
15:47For a country that is recovering from the war,
15:50music is a way to make a living.
15:54In the 1950s, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis became famous all over the world,
16:02along with big bands that play jazz and rock and roll.
16:07That is why, that is why
16:09You will hear the people cry
16:11Our democracy will die
16:14Without him, Magsaysay
16:16What I found interesting in the lyrics of Mambo Magsaysay
16:20was that it was in Taglish.
16:22Now, it's ordinary to hear.
16:25But back in the day, in the early 50s,
16:28Taglish wasn't that popular yet.
16:35Of course, your dad was very fluent in English
16:39and I suppose in Tagalog as well.
16:41But I guess it was one of the first songs that was in Taglish.
16:48It was really more of a conversational kind of language back then.
16:55Tell us about that.
16:56What was the influence of that?
16:59He had an ear for this as well, for this kind of conversation.
17:03Were there already songs being written in Taglish?
17:08I don't think there were many songs written in Taglish at the time.
17:12It was either, you know, as we were trained when we were young,
17:15either you'd speak straight Tagalog or straight English.
17:18He was an Atenean.
17:20Laxon was English.
17:22Mambo was English.
17:23In fact, he taught me Tagalog on campus.
17:26Exactly.
17:27So, it was a trailblazer song.
17:30Putting it in Taglish,
17:32it was the market, not only the youth, but the masses.
17:35And they felt they had to put it in a language
17:39that they could really connect and understand to.
17:41And Taglish was the vehicle that they felt would be the best,
17:46that he felt it would be the best, you know, to connect.
17:49And I know it was translated into regional languages.
17:52Yes.
17:53Filipino and I suppose Bisaya.
17:55That's what I understand.
17:56So, we're talking about the 1950s.
17:59So, a lot of people don't remember or don't have any memory of that.
18:04So, what was it about then that you say this song was effective?
18:09Why was it effective?
18:10I mean, now we remember it.
18:11But back then, it was effective, you said.
18:14Did it really help Magsaysay win?
18:16Well, I think that it contributed to his landslide.
18:22You can debate whether the song was done or not.
18:24He still would have won because he was very, very popular to begin with.
18:28And Kirino was very unpopular for whatever reason.
18:32But I think it just added this particular song,
18:36just added more fuel to the landslide.
18:39It made it bigger because it just got people more excited
18:43to be part of the Magsaysay crusade.
18:46That's the goal of lifting up the morale of your supporters.
18:51You need certain props, whether it is music or whatever.
18:57In this particular case, it was this song that really captured Magsaysay
19:02and what he was trying to do and got the young people particularly
19:07really, really excited about supporting him and his message of change.
19:12I think it really, really worked.
19:15In the lyrics, she was referring to election cheating in Lanao.
19:19I guess that occurred during the previous election
19:23for President Elpidio Kirino.
19:27Ironically, Magsaysay was the defense secretary under Elpidio Kirino.
19:32That resonated as well because Magsaysay,
19:36he was the only person who was elected
19:41That resonated as well because Magsaysay supposedly represented
19:46a new kind of politics.
19:48Also, your father was a new kind of politics.
19:52She really emphasized that in the lyrics.
19:55Lanao was notorious even up to today.
20:00For some reason, election manipulation,
20:05with all due respect to my friends and I have many friends in Lanao,
20:09but in all due respect to them, it's still considered as,
20:13for some reason, an industry there.
20:17Post-election manipulation is considered an industry.
20:21As early as that time, as you said, it was already known
20:25as a place where there was a lot of shenanigans going on with the elections
20:29before and after the counting.
20:32In a way, your father as a songwriter and lyricist
20:36kind of lucked out on Magsaysay not only as the candidate,
20:40but also because of the name Magsaysay.
20:43It rhymed with a lot of words.
20:45Without Magsaysay, democracy will die.
20:49So, he really played the name Magsaysay.
20:54That was kind of charming.
20:56My dad had a knack for rhyming.
20:59He was really word smooth.
21:03Word smooth, that was his first talent.
21:06Putting music is just the coating.
21:10He really likes to write stuff, songs, speeches.
21:16He always wrote his own speeches, wrote his own songs.
21:19Mago, Mago, Magsaysay
21:21Mago, Mago, Mago, Magsaysay
21:24Our democracy will never die.
21:29But in terms of rhyming, Magsaysay as a name was a gift.
21:34Yeah, it made it a lot easier.
21:36In fact, it was revived later on because of those lyrics of democracy.
21:42It was timeless.
21:44You take out the references to the early 50s,
21:49even though you said it was timeless.
21:51It was timeless.
21:53But in terms of democracy, 1986, it was revived on Radio Veritas at that time.
21:59So, when did your family find out, your father in particular,
22:03that it was being revived in 1986 by June Keasley on Radio Veritas?
22:08Well, we were quite surprised.
22:10We were still in exile in Washington when we started to receive messages
22:15during the four-day people power revolution
22:20that the kids were singing and humming it in the streets.
22:23It was all over the place.
22:25My dad said, but how did this happen?
22:28And so that's when we said, you know, this June Keasley, Radio Bandido,
22:32he found that record there in the file.
22:35He felt this is a way to help lift the morale of the people that were demonstrating.
22:42And so that's what happened.
22:43So, we were very surprised.
22:46You know, it came by complete accident.
22:49It was kind of a stroke of genius then by June Keasley
22:51because she knew a hit when she heard it.
22:54Yeah.
22:55And I think the message also,
22:58there were elements in the song that resonated to what was going on.
23:02Take away the magsaysay thing, but just the whole message was still the same.
23:08In the 1950s, television was still in its infancy.
23:12That's why radio was the main medium.
23:15There was no TV yet.
23:17Of course, GMA was 1961.
23:19I think so.
23:20Yeah, yeah.
23:21Or it was just starting.
23:22It was a very small part.
23:24I think it was, but it was not.
23:25Yeah, so it wasn't yet dominant.
23:27Or even if there was TV, people didn't have TV sets yet.
23:30Yeah, yeah.
23:31Only radio.
23:32So it was not a real, it was still radio.
23:34I guess this was a medium that was really the most popular.
23:39Yeah, the radio.
23:40This song could easily be played on any radio station.
23:44I guess back then you also bought spots, no?
23:47Yeah.
23:48To air the jingle and whatever else message you had.
23:51And then I think they had turntables, so they had records.
23:55Ah, it was also sold as a record.
23:57Yeah, it was a record.
23:59And I suspect maybe when they would go to the provinces,
24:02they would have a machine and they would play it
24:07and put it on a bullhorn so that everyone could hear it.
24:10I speculated that's what they were doing at that time.
24:13This was their loudspeaker.
24:15They had a turntable there.
24:17They'd play the record and then…
24:19So it was really one of the first, I guess, media-based political campaigns, right?
24:26Because there's a saying in Philippine politics,
24:29can you defend it in Plaza Miranda?
24:32Yes, yes.
24:33So usually the campaign was really face-to-face, right?
24:36You'd address audiences in public plazas and spaces like that.
24:42Very personal.
24:43You'd go around, very personal.
24:44But Magsaysay did the same.
24:46Yes.
24:47But in addition to that, they used the new popular media.
24:51Yes, yes, yes.
24:52And after that, it became practically normal.
24:55Yes.
24:56It just got bigger.
24:57In the 57th campaign, Yulu had a jingle.
25:00It just kept going.
25:02But this was really the first one.
25:14Looking back now, so what was the impact of Mambo Magsaysay for you?
25:18Well, I think it's a standard that's very hard to duplicate.
25:25There's been a lot of jingles over the years,
25:30but I don't think any jingle has been able to duplicate
25:38how effective this particular piece was,
25:44both in the message, both in the fact that it was an original.
25:48A lot of people take a song and they just change the lyrics.
25:51There are some originals out there.
25:53But it still does not capture really the feeling
25:58and the message that this particular song did.
26:03It was really timeless in my view.
26:05So up to now, when people hear it, it's catchy.
26:09They recognize it.
26:10They love the lyrics.
26:12In one package, it was all there.
26:15It's just the first part, Podmates, of our story
26:23about the first ever hit campaign jingle in the country.
26:27As we wake up from the war,
26:29what happened to politics in the 50s?
26:32And who is Ramon Magsaysay?
26:36Stay tuned for part 2.
26:39This episode was produced by the team of Yu Marianga and Aubrey de los Reyes.
26:44Supervised by Criselda Caringal, Arla Fabella, and Bernice Ibucao.
26:49Our camera crew is from the team of Benher Mohado.
26:52This was edited by JR Magtoto and hosted by me, Javi Severino.
26:58Thank you, Podmates, for listening and watching until the very end of this podcast.
27:02Alam niyo na, nakakatalino ang mahabang attention span.
27:06Don't forget to like and subscribe and binge watch our past episodes too.
27:10Until the next pod, mabuhay kayo at ingat lang.
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