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Clouds Over the Philippines
| Article
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10727 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1986 |
3,088 Words |
| Author
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Karl D. Jackson
Karl D. Jackson is a professor at the University of
California, Berkeley. |
On October 13, Senator Paul Laxalt arrived in the Philippines as the much-heralded personal messenger of President Ronald Reagan.
He delivered a handwritten note indicating that the president himself was sorely concerned over the plight of the Philippines and fearful for the future unless major political and economic reforms were immediately forthcoming.
An outside observer might assume under this circumstance that President Marcos was on the ropes and perhaps unlikely to answer the bell for the next round. The pressure had been building since the August, 1983, slaying of former senator Benigno Aquino. United States official demands for reform--issues in fronts of congressional committees--read as though they had been written by President Marcos' domestic critics:
democratic institutions must be revitalized (that is, end your dictatorial ways);
restore the free market economy (that is, end the monopolistic practices that have allowed your crony supporters to amass both wealth and power);
reinvigorate military professionalism(that is, retire the over-age generals who provide you with unquestioning support) and
do justice in the Aquino assassination case (that is, do not reinstate General Ver as chief of the armed forces). The image projected by much of the international media is of a sixty-eight-year-old man, supposedly dying of a degenerative disease,
... (1998 of 19485 Characters)
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