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Aquino's Philippines: The Storm to Come
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13122 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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11 / 1987 |
4,551 Words |
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Kirsten Amundsen
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Since the completion of this report, rapid-fire developments in the Philippines strongly suggest that the "storm" referred to in the title may already have hit the islands. Revolutionary violence has intensified, an attempted military coup led by Col. Grigorio Honasan, a hero of the "People Power Revolution" failed, and an unprecedented shake-up in President Aquino's cabinet followed.
The chaos created by these events was quickly exploited by the communist insurgents of the New People's Army. New offensives were launched. Ambushes of military convoys have become more frequent. For the first time, strategic bridges were blown up, cutting several provinces off from normal contact with the capital.
Stories in the American media, for the most part, have failed to focus on the source of the unfolding calamity and to clearly identify the imminent threat to the vulnerable new democracy. This analysis attempts to do just that.
It can fairly be said that of all leaders of Asia in contemporary times, none has received more favorable press and enthusiastic public reception in the United States than President Corazon Aquino. Understandably so, most would contend. Something like a political miracle appeared in the making in the Philippines when a bloodless mass uprising swept aside a corrupt and feeble dictator. The highly appealing new president, widow of a martyred Filipino leader, swiftly took charge with solemn and credible pledges of democracy and national renewal for the Philippines.
Aquino's mandate not only survived the first turbulent year of her presidency, but was strongly affirmed and strengthened in the February 1987 plebiscite for the new constitution. With a 76 percent approval rating reported for the sweeping presidential powers, followed by an astounding victory for the Aquino Coalition in the May congressional elections - a reported 92 percent of the final tally - even the most generous appraisals and extravagant hopes for the new Filipino leader seemed confirmed. "Cory Hallelujah!" was the title given a lead article on March 2 in the normally caustic New Republic magazine - an apt summation at the time of the press treatment given this Joan of Arc of Asia.
Whether that designation was genuinely enthusiastic or laconic, the realities behind the headlines applauding Aquino's promising ascent to power suggest rather different prospects both for the new leader and the people of the Philippines. As anyone traveling in these islands in recent months can testify, this remains a land with troubling, even explosive, socioeconomic and political problems. This is also a regime with faulty, even contradictory, approaches to the country's present and emerging crises. In the judgment of many early supporters of the "People Power Revolution," Aquino's own leadership is by now characterized more by faith and hope than by a realistic grasp of events and developments. The threats to stability and a democratic way of life in the Philippines have escalated rather than diminished in the last year and a half.
Even the sharpest of Aquino's critics will admit that the array of problems facing the new government could give the most seasoned political leader an attack of nerves. Whether the problem concerns the Philippines' festering poverty, its lagging economy, its
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