Jose B. Lingad

In the 1947 general elections, Lingad was elected governor of Pampanga as a member of the Liberal Party at the age of 33. He also became vice-president of the League of Governors of the Philippines. Seated as governor in 1948, Lingad served a single term, being defeated for re-election in 1951 due to the fall-out from the Maliwalu massacre.[2][3] Had Lingad stayed on as governor though, he would have been appointed by President Elpidio Quirino to lead the Department of National Defense due to his stellar accomplishments at the time.

After his term as governor, Lingad was still recognized as the political kingpin of Pampanga. And during the elections of 1949, Lingad nominated Diosdado Macapagal, who was then serving as second secretary of the Philippine embassy in Washington, D.C. to run for the 1st Congressional District of Pampanga.[2]

With the help and guidance of governor Lingad, Diosdado Macapagal would start his political career that would make him president of the Philippines one day. As they were childhood friends in the town of Lubao, Pampanga.

In 1969, Lingad was elected as Congressman of the 1st district of Pampanga.

When his Protégé Diosdado Macapagal was elected president in 1961, Lingad joined the Macapagal administration, first as Commissioner of Bureau of Internal Revenue, then Commissioner of Bureau of Customs and, ultimately Secretary of Labor.[3]

In 1969, Lingad was elected to the House of Representatives under the Liberal Party banner representing the 1st District of Pampanga, the same seat Macapagal had won 20 years earlier. Lingad served in the 7th Congress from 1969 to 1972. Previously perceived as holding right-wing political views, Lingad shifted to the left while in Congress, supporting farmers' rights and dialogue with the leftist insurgency.[3] Lingad's congressional career was abbreviated with the abolition of Congress following the declaration of martial law by Marcos in 1972. Lingad, a member of the political opposition against Marcos, was among the first political figures to be arrested and imprisoned on the day martial law was declared.[3]

Lingad was released from prison after three months and he retired to his Pampanga farm.[3] He was called out of retirement by the opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., who urged him to run for Pampanga governor in the January 1980 local elections as a candidate of the anti-Marcos opposition. Lingad was defeated by Estelito Mendoza, but he raised charges of fraud which led to the staging of a new election for governor.