Unanimous

In the broiler heat of a tin-roofed basketball stadium, 863 delegates of the Philippines' Liberal Party gathered one day last week to nominate a presidential candidate. For the first time in the party's brief postwar history, it had a choice to make. The alternatives: to renominate powerful and clever President Elpidio Quirino for a second term, or shuck him and his corruption-tainted regime and nominate peppery Carlos Romulo, ex-Foreign Secretary, ex-president of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Romulo wing calculated it needed only one break on the convention floor to win a majority of delegates. But that one break was crucial. Since many of the delegates were Quirino jobholders or otherwise beholden to him, Romulo demanded a secret ballot. Quirino's professionals deftly outmaneuvered Romulo by taking an open ballot to decide whether to hold a secret ballot. Just as a sudden thunderstorm broke overhead, the results were announced: 243 for the secret ballot, 644 against it. When Romulo's Floor Manager Tomas Cabili added up the figures, the convention broke into a thunderstorm of its own. "This means 887 delegates voting," he shouted, "but there are only 863 accredited. There apparently has been fraud." But Senator Cabili knew that all was over. "You have won the nomination, but you have lost the election," he cried, then led a score or more of Romulo backers out of the stadium. Quirino's supporters then took a vote on the renomination of Elpidio Quirino. The result: unanimous.

Angry Carlos Romulo was undecided whether to run as a third-party candidate, or to throw his strength to Nacionalista Nominee Ramon Magsaysay, the Huk-fighting ex-Secretary of Defense.

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