Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0288/02883.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 25KB | 403 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02883}
$Pretitle{272}
$Title{Philippines
Chapter 1E.   Marcos}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Frederica M. Bunge}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{marcos
new
law
martial
government
philippine
society
philippines
military
political}
$Date{1983}
$Log{}
Country:     Philippines
Book:        Philippines, A Country Study
Author:      Frederica M. Bunge
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1983

Chapter 1E.   Marcos

The Marcos Administration, 1965-72

     In the presidential election of 1965, Macapagal lost to Ferdinand E.
Marcos, wartime veteran of a USAFFE guerrilla unit and senator from Ilocos
Norte Province, who was the Nacionalista Party candidate. Macapagal's
agrarian reforms had not achieved their goals, and once again the
electorate expressed dissatisfaction with official corruption and high
prices. During his first term (1965-69) Marcos tackled, not entirely
successfully, the serious problems of smuggling and crime. Considerably
more successful were two "impact programs." The first was the substantial
support given to the dissemination of new "miracle rice" varieties developed
by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) as a means of overcoming
popular dissatisfaction with the availability and the cost of rice. The
second was a massive public works program-roads, bridges, schools, health
centers, irrigation facilities, and urban beautification projects. Marcos'
personal delivery of public works checks to barrio captains, allocations
that helped drain the treasury, reportedly contributed to his reelection in
1969. His early admission that "we are in crisis" and his theme of the
"New Filipino"-self-reliant, hardworking, and creative-were addressed to
popular cynicism and discouragement. Using his patronage powers to the
fullest, he also appointed able technocrats to the government.

     Foreign policy responded to increasing nationalist sentiment and to
changes in the regional environment following the statement of the Nixon
Doctrine in mid-1969 of a reduced United States military presence in Asia.
In 1966, after heated debate, the legislature had provided for the
commitment of a 2,000-man Philippine Civic Action Group (PHILCAG) to the
Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the first contingent being sent in
August of that year. In 1969, shortly after Marcos' reelection,
withdrawal of the Philippine unit was announced. Marcos espoused greater
national independence in foreign policy and closer ties with neighboring
countries. The Philippines helped form the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, which also included Malaysia; trouble between
these countries continued over the Sabah issue. In 1968 a new Philippine map
was issued including most of Sabah as national territory.

     In November 1969 Marcos became the first president of the independent
Philippines to win a second term, defeating Liberal Party candidate Sergio
Osmena, Jr. He obtained 60 percent of the vote, the highest ever save for
Magsaysay's 1953 victory, and carried all 10 regions (at that time) of the
country, including that containing Osmena's home province of Cebu.
Nacionalista Party representatives were elected at the same time from 90 of
the 110 constituencies. Marcos assumed his second term, however, against
a background of continuing tension and malaise. The political power of the
elite was being challenged, and violent student demonstrations erupted in
Manila in early 1970. Insurgency was a growing problem, particularly in the
Moro regions of Mindanao, and the issue of agrarian reform remained
unresolved. There were, moreover, serious issues revolving around trade
relations and base rights that had to be negotiated with the United States
during the 1970s.

President Marcos and Martial Law

     On September 21, 1972, President Marcos issued Proclamation 1081,
declaring martial law over the entire country. In an operation described by
one observer as "swift, sufficient, thorough, but not unduly harsh," the
military under the president's command arrested oppositionists,
including members of Congress and provincial governors, journalists, student
and labor activists, and criminal elements. (A total of about 30,000
detainees were kept at military compounds run by the army and the PC.) They
confiscated weapons and broke up "private armies" connected with prominent
politicians and other figures. Newspapers were shut down and the mass media
brought under tight control. With the stroke of a pen, Marcos closed down the
Philippine Congress and assumed its lawmaking responsibilities, issuing over
a thousand presidential decrees by 1976.

     The incident that precipitated martial law was an unsuccessful attempt
on September 21, 1972, to assassinate the secretary of national defense,
Juan Ponce Enrile. In Proclamation 1081, Marcos attributed a rising tide
of lawlessness to "elements who are moved by a common or similar ideological
conviction, design, strategy and goal and enjoying the active and material
support of a foreign power. . ." who intended to establish a new state and
society based on "the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist teachings and beliefs." He
alleged the existence of a network of "front organizations" working among
"our peasants, laborers, professionals, intellectuals, students, and mass
media personnel" that sought to promote violence and overthrow the
government. Although a conspiracy of leftists was seen as the principal
rationale for martial law, Marcos also mentioned the growth of violence
between Muslims and Christians on Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago as
being encouraged by foreign powers.

Conditions on the Eve of Martial Law

     Most observers agree that by 1972 lawlessness and unrest had reached
new heights in the Philippines, though the existence of a genuine conspiracy
among insurgents, even of the left, is strongly doubted. The government's
suppression campaign against the People's Liberation Army in the 1950s left
only a remnant under Commander Sumulong (Faustino del Mundo); he was more of a
gangster than a revolutionary, deeply involved in gambling and prostitution
rackets near Clark Air Base. There was also a small People's Army connected
to what was left of the pro-Soviet Communist Party of the Philippines (the
organization had been largely broken up during the 1950s). The most
troublesome insurgent group was the New People's Army (NPA), the armed force
of the pro-Chinese "reestablished" Philippine Communist Party, which
designated itself the Communist Party of the Philippines-Marxist Leninist
(CPP-ML). The party had been organized in 1968 in Tarlac Province by
Bernabe Buscayno, alias Commander Dante, a veteran of Sumulong's rackets who
had broken with older communists and adopted the Maoist strategy of "People's
Democratic Revolution." By the early 1970s the NPA was in control of large
portions of Isabela Province on the northeast coast of Luzon. Buscayno was
popular among student activists in the universities of Manila, and some
links were established between the NPA and the more radical student
organizations.

     Violence on Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago was based on the
centuries-long hostility between the Muslims of the region and the predominant
Christian population of the islands. As Christian immigration from the
crowded regions of Luzon and the Visayan Islands increased, Moros were
finding themselves a minority in their own homeland. Bitterness was
compounded by the fact that this immigration was largely government
sponsored and was perceived by the Moros as part of a plan to extinguish
Muslim identity. Communal violence flared up between armed groups such as the
Blackshirts and the Barracudas, Moro gangs that terrorized newly arrived
settlers from the north, and the Ilagas, or Rats, a Christian vigilante
group.

     In July 1971 terrorist gangs killed 70 Muslims in a mosque in the barrio
of Manili on Mindanao. In Proclamation 1081 Marcos stated that some 3,000
persons (including 1,000 civilians) had been killed in hostil