Silvino Barsana Agudo

As the 1967 mid-election approached President Ferdinand Marcos moved to ensure that his Nacionalista Party would be victorious by electing most of the Senators, Governors, and Mayors of the country. President Ferdinand Marcos asked Chairman Manuel "Maning" Agudo to choose Silvino as his candidate for governor of Batanes. Manuel Agudo's reputation was critically important to Silvino's endorsement to run for Governor because of his chairmanship of the Civil Service Board of Appeals, tenure as Congressman of Batanes (1958–1961), and service as administrative officer in the Office of the President in Malacañang Palace during the tenure of six Presidents of the Philippines, namely: José P. Laurel, Sergio Osmeña, Manuel Roxas, Elpidio Quirino, Ramon Magsaysay, and Carlos P. Garcia.

During this time Silvino Agudo was a successful law practitioner with many clients in the Filipino, American, Spanish, and Chinese communities. Precisely because of his success in law practice, he was induced to run for Governor. He participated in the Provincial Convention in Batanes and then boarded a Philippine Navy boat to Basco in August 1967.

Agudo's trip was delayed by a typhoon but when he arrived in Basco, he described the town as a "gog." Manuel and Renee Agudo rented a house to stay and Silvino stayed in the house of his uncle, Jose Barona, and aunt Bilay (Severa) Barsana Barona, sister of Silvino's mother.

Two days after his arrival, the Nacionalista Party Convention was held on Tukon Hill. Nominations were made and three were nominated for Governor: Jose Aceron of Ivana, Tobias Abad of Basco, and Atty. Silvino Barsana Agudo of Ivana. After the nominations, Jose Martinez, Agudo's campaign manager, talked to delegates in each town without consulting jim. After the short campaigning, voting was done by secret ballot. At the end of the day,Renee Agudo, Chairwoman of the Batanes Nacionalista Party announced the winning party candidates: Agudo as its gubernatorial candidate, with Tobias Abad as his running mate. Afterwards, Agudo and other official candidates took the same Philippine Navy Boat back to Manila.

Renee Agudo reported to Marcos and Senator Gil Puyat the results of the convention. Within a month Marcos invited all the candidates for governor and city mayor to Malacañang for individual conversations with him. To everyone's surprise, President Marcos knew all candidates' names by heart. All candidates were also brought into a room filled with 6-foot piles of legal-sized brown envelopes. The President's aid gave one envelope to each candidate. However, Agudo was pulled aside and given a second envelope which was to be for the six candidates for mayor in Batanes. Agudo took a taxi home and examined the contents of the brown envelopes – each containing US$10,000 in $10 bills or $20,000 in all. He subsequently bought a new refrigerator and distributed and spent the rest of the money for provisions for his campaign.

During his term (1968–1971), Agudo supported the preservation and promotion of Batanes culture through various initiatives including research of archaic Itbayaten numeral writing systems.[6]

Agudo presided over Batanes during one of its most tumultuous times and played an instrumental role in preventing election fraud and protecting Ivatan people from armed thugs known as Suzuki Boys for the branded motorcycles they rode on.[7]

During the 1969 election, there were five candidates for the lone congressional seat of the province. The important candidates were Renee Agudo (Nacionalista), former Congressmen Jorge Abad, and Rufino Antonio Jr. and Independent who was affiliated with the Nacionalistas and was a businessman from Metro Manila who opened a Suzuki brand motorcycle dealership in the province.[8])

Weeks before the November 11, 1969 Elections, about 100 non-residents landed in Basco and scattered in the six towns of the province. Crates also landed in [Basco. In late October, as an effort to maintain security of the island, Governor Agudo instructed Provincial Commander of the Philippine Constabulary (PC), Captain Fulgencio Albano, to collect licensed firearms from the residents "for verification." Furthermore, he advised the PC to search airport passengers and their luggage for firearms.

On November 9, Philippine Airlines suspended flights to Basco after several privately owned planes, including light aircraft, a helicopter and a Douglas DC-3 blocked the runway, forcing the PAL plane that carried Ivatan voters from Manila to turn back.

On November 10, a day before the elections, telegraph communications from Basco through the Bureau of Telecommunications and Station and Radio Communications of the Philippines Incorporated (RCPI) went dead. Armed goons had allegedly destroyed all private and government wireless facilities and drove away operators of the telecoms and RCPI stations; an operator of the weather bureau was reportedly tear gassed. The equipment was destroyed, however, some operators who fled to the mountains used a transmitter to report "goon activities" and request the Albano and President Marcos for aid. Later during the night of November 10, the Bureau of Public Highways compound was raided and vehicles were destroyed.

Even before this, on October 24, Ivatans in Manila held a meeting in Quezon City and decided to ask the PC and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to relieve Captain Albano from his post. On November 2, Albano was replaced by Major Benjamin Amante. On November 7, Major Amante and Congressman Roque Ablan of Ilocos Norte flew to Basco in Ablan's plane. However, Amante stayed only a few days then left Basco before the elections. The PC Officer in charge was a Captain Velasco.

On election day, the roads leading to the six towns of Batanes were barricaded by checkpoints manned by armed thugs. Governor Agudo and his party making tours of the towns were turned back at one of the checkpoints and warned if they proceeded they might be ambushed. An American Peace Corps Volunteer, Larry Jones, was given six hours to surrender photographs of goons terrorizing voters at precincts.

Three days after the elections, Batanes was one of the few provinces from which results of the congressional elections were not heard. In the past elections, which were peaceful, results were known by the next day, there being only less than 5,000 votes to count. In Manila, Agudo's wife, Honorata, asked Executive Secretary Ernesto Maceda to assign security men to her house near Quezon City because suspicious looking men were loitering near their home.

In less than a week after the elections, residents of Batanes, were up in arms against the takeover of their islands by thugs. Reports of the terror that gripped Batanes filtered to Manila several days after the counting finished, prompting them to call public attention to the "rape of the ballot" in the province.

On January 16, 1969, President Ferdinand Marcos acknowledged a report from Governor Agudo stating "three of the suspected malefactors in connection with the November 11 polls had escaped by private plane (Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines)."[9] Eventually, the Supreme Court decrying the "rape of democracy" in the province, annulled the victory of Marcos' candidate, Rufino Antonio Jr. in 1970 in favor of his rival, Jorge Abad.[10]