Former boxer turned presidential hopeful in May’s election Manny Pacquiao has one, so does his main rival Vice President Leni Robredo.
Political pop songs have been a staple on the campaign trail in the Philippines for decades. Rather than repurposing popular classics, politicians commission their own bespoke tunes to extol their achievements and deride the competition.
But was the trend started 70 years ago by a CIA agent in Manilla tasked with pushing back against the threat of the Soviet Union?
The National has delved into the declassified files of former spy Edward Lansdale — described by former CIA director William Colby as “one of the greatest spies in history” — to see if he was the man behind Magsaysay Mambo, the song that helped propel then defence secretary Ramon Magsaysay to the presidency in 1953.
In the process, we discuss the CIA — and Moscow’s — secret cold war battle for cultural hegemony that saw global stars from painter Jackson Pollock to Jazz legend Louis Armstrong inadvertently enter the payroll of the global powers.
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Edward Geary Lansdale, who died in 1987, was a US Air Force officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services and the Central Intelligence Agency. Getty -
Rosita de La Vega sings at a Manila nightclub, circa 1953. Photo: Weekend Magazine -
The lyrics to the song 'Mambo Magsaysay'. Photo: Hoover Institution Library & Archives -
Ramon Magsaysay, president of the Phillipines from 1953 to 1957. Getty Images -
Huk guerrilla leader and founder of the Communist struggle in the Philippines, Luis Taruc, in 1950 disproves government claims of his demise by posing with a newspaper dated July 1. He is surrounded by members of his guerrilla band. AFP -
Photographed at Manila International Airport in December 1960 are, from left: Dario Arellano, Manny Manahan, Edward Lansdale, Johnny Orendain and Oscar Arellano. Photo: Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Centre, Maxwell Air Force Base -
Mr Lansdale plays the harmonica while on deployment. Photo: American Folklife Centre, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. -
Johnny Orendain, a lawyer turned key ally of the CIA in Manila as the US sought to defeat the Communists. Victor Besa
