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How to Preserve Philippine Democracy
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11772 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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4 / 1987 |
7,389 Words |
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Morton A. Kaplan interviews Philippines President Corazon Aquino and others
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The interviews with leaders of the Philippines that follow, I believe, provide a good picture of their understanding of the situation in which they find themselves and of their intentions. I was deeply impressed by the commitment of all to reform, including armed forces chief of staff Gen. Fidel Ramos. The quotation from Saint Francis that adorns the wall outside the main lecture hall of the Defense College I suspect cannot be paralleled at any comparable military institution.
Corazon Aquino is a shy lady with great inner strength who harbors no personal animosity, even toward those who murdered her husband. She has a good sense of humor and is quite sincere, as well as determined, in her efforts to build a democratic republic. Vice President and Foreign Minister Salvador Laurel was particularly impressive in his knowledge of what needs to be done and how to do it.
He is a politician of the old school and knows how to wheel and deal. But he also seems determined to produce an effective democracy, one in which there is social justice.
Fidel Ramos is a most unusual general, whose offices are informal and awash with camaraderie and good humor. He is a modest but very capable man, who can be counted upon to protect the nascent democracy in the Philippines.
The constitutional commission is a problem because its populism produced a highly detailed draft that can have no effective longevity. However, this very fact may give it a short-term strength that a more expertly drawn document might have lacked. Nonetheless, its defects may ill serve Aquino in time of trouble. This is particularly true because many genuinely elected officials were removed by Pimental, and some of these remain popular. Former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile's public claim that Aquino should stand for election - not because the old election was illegitimate but because she installed a self-proclaimed revolutionary regime that removed an elected assembly and elected local officials - was self-interested but not entirely without merit. The overwhelming ratification of the new constitution should do much to reduce the force of those charges.
I believe that Aquino was correct to offer amnesty to the communists. Failure to do so would have helped to legitimate the rebellion, for many peasants undoubtedly joined the rebellion because of the failures and crimes of the Marcos regime. This offer may shift the blame to the communists since they have chosen to continue the rebellion, and it may allow many noncommunists who supported the New People's Army an opportunity to rejoin Filipino society. But if the communists outmaneuver Aquino by clever psychological warfare, as they are trying to do, and if few peasants return from the hills, then her effort, although wise, will be turned against her by those who hope to succeed her.
The communists have clearly shown by their behavior that they do not intend to lay down their arms. They will resist efforts by the New Armed Forces of the Philippines to establish their control over the territory of the Philippines, even if they accept conditional cease-fires. At the same time, they have set up the Bayan Party, a legal organization designed to contest elections while conducting armed warfare through the NPA. One of its two founders is Jose Maria Sison, who also founded the Communist
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