The countdown to disaster had already begun. On Monday, Salvador ("Doy") Laurel, 57, marched into the office of the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and filed as a candidate in the Feb. 7 presidential election. On Wednesday, Corazon ("Cory") Aquino, 52, did the same thing. With the ink on Aquino's registration papers barely dry and with only hours remaining before the midnight filing deadline, there was only the dimmest hope that the two opposition leaders would patch up their differences and revive plans that had collapsed three days earlier to run on a single ticket. The possibility loomed that the opposition vote would be split in the snap election--and President Ferdinand Marcos, 68, would be assured of victory.
By early Wednesday afternoon, Aquino and Laurel had each met separately with Jaime Cardinal Sin, the influential Archbishop of Manila, who has been a frequent critic of the Marcos regime. Sin encouraged both to subordinate their personal ambitions to the greater interests of the country. Later Aquino and Laurel met at the house of Maur Lichauco, the sister of Aquino's husband, slain Opposition Leader Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino. In just 20 minutes, the two candidates agreed to revive their deal for a unified slate. At 10:30 p.m., Aquino and Laurel returned to COMELEC and re-registered. By agreement--and to Aquino's obvious delight--the new papers listed her as the presidential candidate and Laurel as her running mate. For Laurel, there was the satisfaction that the ticket would be fielded under the banner of the party he had spent years building, the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO).
The rescue came not a moment too soon. Earlier that day, the 8,462 delegates attending the nominating convention of the ruling New Society Movement (K.B.L.) had assembled at the Manila Hotel to submit the party's nominations for the presidency. As expected, Marcos' was the only name offered. Formalities concluded, the President entered the hall, borne triumphantly on the shoulders of loyal aides. With a touch of nostalgia, or perhaps superstition, he wore the same striped short-sleeved shirt jacket that he had worn to the 1965 K.B.L. nominating convention at which the stage was set for his first successful presidential bid. After the cheers of "Marcos still!" had quieted, the President stepped to the microphone and launched into a sonorous denunciation of the opposition. He accused his political foes of slander, corruption, godlessness and collusion with "leftist killers."
Then Marcos did something he had not done for more than a decade: he designated a Vice President, a post he had abolished after he declared martial law, evidently for fear that any understudy might someday try to hasten his departure. To the surprise of many, he picked as his running mate Arturo ("Turing") Tolentino, 75, a party maverick who was sacked as Foreign Minister nine months ago for espousing views "incompatible" with the President's.