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Philippine democracy remains frail
TWENTY-one years have passed since
the seminal “Peoples Power” revolution in the Philippines when the
late Filipino dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos was deposed and forced
to flee to Hawaii.
It was a seminal event in modern history because it was the first
time that a long-suffering and unhappy populace was able to
overthrow a government literally without a shot being fired in a
peaceful revolution.
Marcos came to power in 1965 and was the first Filipino president
to be successfully elected to a second term in office.
Towards the end of his second term on Sept 21, 1972, he declared
martial law, shut down a colourful and highly diverse media and
imposed his style of one-man rule.
Many opposition politicians, journalists and left-wing academics
were jailed without trial.
In the early days, Marcos had significant public support because
of perceptions of improved law and order and some gains in
economic development and in the building of new infrastructure.
But gradually corruption became the main driving force of the
illegal regime and the Philippine economy, also adversely impacted
by rapidly rising oil import prices, began to stagnate.
Opposition to the Marcos regime grew steadily after the
assassination in Aug 1983 of opposition leader Benigno Aquino at
the Manila International Airport, on his return from exile in the
United States.
Things came to a head after his widow, Corazon Aquino, challenged
Marcos in the February 1986 national election, where the latter’s
victory was disputed as being fraudulent.
The National Bishops Conference also condemned it as fraudulent.
Marcos’ fate was sealed after more than a million people took
their protests to the streets of Manila and were eventually
supported by the military, including the armed forces head Gen
Fidel Ramos and Defence Minister Juan Ponce Enrile.
It was the same Enrile who staged an assassination attempt on
himself the day after martial law was announced in an effort to
legitimise the Marcos’ day of infamy. He was a key cabinet
minister during the martial law years and has remained a senator
since then.
Despite the 21 years that have passed, Philippine politics remain
highly problematic despite the holding of democratic presidential
elections and for a myriad of other positions.
As the first post-martial law president, Mrs Aquino was unable to
utilise her much admired charisma and popularity to
institutionalise and pave the way for broader national reforms.
She would certainly have done a lot better if not for the fact
that the so-called “Lost Command” of renegade soldiers, with some
reported links to Enrile, stage-managed about half a dozen coup
attempts in a bid to set up a military government.
They failed, partly because Mrs Aquino was able to count on the
loyalty of Gen Ramos, but scores of people were killed as a result
and any hopes for a boom in foreign investments and increased
employment were quickly killed off.
Gen Ramos himself became president in 1992 and even though he was
immune, presumably as a military man, from the coup attempts. But
economic and political progress remained uneven and patchy during
his six years in office.
His great achievement was to largely resolve significant
infrastructure problems, especially in power generation, helping
to largely bring to an end the incessant blackout and brownout
problems facing the vast metropolis of Manila.
Next on the scene was Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, one of the country’s
famous movie actors, who was unable to complete his term amongst
claims of corruption and a rising tide of street protests. His
fall occurred when the military withdrew its support.
Taking over from him was the then vice-president Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, who in 2004, was elected as president in her own right,
again in the face of strong public protests and much controversy.
President Arroyo has brought significant macroeconomic change to
the country and there have been some signs of significant
improvements to infrastructure in the capital city but the lost
opportunities since the fall of Marcos have meant that
neighbouring countries continue to forge ahead of the Philippines.
There is a sense of fragility about the reforms of the past 21
years with Arroyo having faced a number of failed military coup
attempts as well, the latest of which has been partially
masterminded by that now honourable senator ‘Gringo’ Honasan.
Since the fall of Marcos, most economists believe the numbers of
people living in poverty has continued to increase even though
there are some incipient signs of stronger economic growth in
recent years.
One of the brighter developments on the socio-economic horizon has
been the impact of the Catholic-based Gawak Kalinga group, which
is presently building some 700,000 homes for poor people in
disadvantaged communities throughout the country.
Questions about the robustness of Philippine democracy emerge
continuously.
A recently completed United Nations report last week accused the
Philippine military of being involved in numerous extra-judicial
killings, something that also occurred in Indonesia under
President Suharto.
Almost every year, there are more journalists killed in the
Philippines than in any other country besides Iraq.
Other long-standing political problems that remain unresolved
include the Muslim separatist movement in Mindanao and Sulu
Islands in the southern Philippines, and an apparently resurgent
New Peoples Army, a militant communist group of a kind that has
become a relic even in the communist world.
At the heart of the Philippine inability to implement significant
change, is the continued dominance of the elite in the nation’s
Congress, who count among themselves people like Enrile and
Honasan.
 
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