First ladies part ways in the
Philippines By Donald Kirk
MANILA - The movement to oust President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has lost its most visible
leader with the hospitalization this week of the
only other woman ever to lead the Philippines,
Corazon Aquino.
One of the most outspoken
critics of allegedly profligate corruption in the
Arroyo government, Aquino is not expected to be
able to resume her crusade any time soon while
undergoing chemotherapy for colon cancer, said to
be in an advanced stage after she ignored early
warning signs of the disease. Arroyo joined a
chorus of well-wishers, offering prayers for
Aquino "to surmount this as she has conquered all
other trials", but Aquino's forced retreat from
the front line of Arroyo's critics no doubt comes
as an immense relief to her and her husband,
"First Gentleman" Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Arroyo and Aquino might appear on one
level to have much in
common, as women who rose to the
presidency of their male-dominated society as a
result of People Power revolutions. But Aquino's
attacks against Arroyo have embarrassed the first
couple amid fears of another display of People
Power aimed at toppling her government.
As
far as Aquino was concerned, Arroyo and her
husband represented a reversion to the era of
Ferdinand Marcos, the long-ruling president who
imposed martial law and then masterminded the
assassination of Aquino’s husband, Benigno, as he
was returning from exile abroad in August 1993. It
was Benigno Aquino's assassination on the tarmac
of the airport that led to the massive protests of
the People Power revolution and catapulted his
wife to the presidency in February 1986 after a
"snap election" called by Marcos rebounded against
him.
Although widely regarded as a weak
president, with little understanding of economic
issues, Aquino is credited with one signal
achievement. Under her, a commission drafted a
constitution, approved in a nationwide plebiscite,
limiting the president to a single six-year term.
Never again, if the constitution was upheld, would
the Philippines have to endure the iniquities of
20 years of corrupt, dictatorial rule by the likes
of Marcos.
Supported by Jaime Cardinal Sin
until his death in June 2005, Aquino remained an
idealistic crusader whose loyal fans never forgot
the wild enthusiasm that engulfed her takeover of
power behind a revolt led by General Fidel Ramos
and Juan Ponce Enrile. Wearing a yellow dress,
Aquino mesmerized a nation yearning for change
from rule not only by Marcos but also by his
free-spending, money-and-power-hungry wife,
Imelda, and inner-circle "cronies" who controlled
all major business.
Although Marcos died
in exile in Hawaii three and a half years after he
and his family boarded a US Air Force plane out of
Clark Air Base, Imelda, her son and two daughters,
as well as the cronies, all returned to regain
their financial empires and much of their
political power. Imelda's wily attorneys continue
to stave off efforts at recovering "hidden wealth"
that Filipinos, inured to tales of corruption at
all levels, are sure will remain in hers and her
extended family members' control in perpetuity.
The spectacle of a return to the bad old
days and ways inspired Aquino to fresh crusades -
first against any thoughts that her one-time ally,
Ramos, elected to a six-year term over a field of
candidates as her successor in 1992 - might have
entertained revising the constitution and running
again. Next, she turned on Ramos' successor,
Joseph (Erap) Estrada as his own corrupt
tendencies surfaced in an expose of all the loot
he allegedly made from illegal gambling, known
locally as jueteng. Impeach him too, she
demanded, as crowds gathered on EDSA, the 12-lane
Epifanio De Los Santos, in January 2001 for a
reenactment of People Power I.
Effete
elite Aquino at the time appeared to
have much in common with Arroyo, who had been
elected vice president, running on a separate
ticket from Estrada, in 1998. The 2001 People
Power protests, though, would not be quite the
same. The idealistic fervor that had infused and
legitimized People Power I was missing. Many
observers, both in the Philippines and abroad,
viewed Estrada's forced ouster and subsequent
arrest on corruption charges, however
well-founded, as more akin to a coup d'tat than a
people's revolution.
The two women -
Aquino and Arroyo, both from hugely wealthy
families and with national followings - were at
odds almost from the outset. One reason may have
been that Arroyo, with an academic background in
economics, was widely viewed as far more
pragmatic, knowledgeable and competent than Aquino
when it came to coping with the country’s
never-ending financial problems.
Another
may have been that Arroyo, by family background,
was mired in the world of corrupt Philippine
politics - her father, Diosdado Macapagal, had
served as vice president and then as president
before his defeat by Marcos in 1965. Sometimes
called "the incorruptible" by friends and allies,
he too had come to be widely regarded as corrupted
by the time he stepped down.
Aquino, a
daughter of the super-rich Cojuangco family,
remained above such charges, having long since
disavowed connections with her cousin, the top
Marcos crony Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco. On the
basis of a strict Catholic upbringing, both in the
Philippines and then in the US, she maintained her
commitment to idealistic causes despite her
inability to come up with programs and policies
capable of redressing enormous economic imbalances
and social injustices.
Aquino's criticism
of Arroyo crested after her election in 2004 to a
full six-year term, when a wiretapped conversation
revealed that Arroyo was trying to manipulate the
results of a prolonged vote count in which she was
finally declared the victor over challenger
Fernando Poe Junior. The fact that Poe, like
Estrada, had been an actor with little
comprehension of governance or policy did not
deter Aquino from demanding that Arroyo make "the
supreme sacrifice" and give up her post. The
crusade on his behalf did not end until his death
from a heart attack near the end of 2004.
Increasingly, as illness silently stalked
her, Aquino's crusade has appeared almost
quixotic. After Arroyo finally let Estrada out of
house arrest last year, Aquino actually appeared
on the same platform with him - Aquino calling for
Arroyo to resign while Estrada applauded. The main
complaint has been corruption associated with
Arroyo’s husband, the First Gentleman, known in
headlines, in true Philippine style, as "FG".
Widely regarded as the manipulator behind
the first family's finances, he was implicated
most recently in schemes for reaping percentages
from deals with China for a state-tendered
national broadband network. A Supreme Court,
packed with Arroyo appointees, most recently has
rejected demands by senators for Arroyo's former
socio-economic planning secretary, Romulo Neri, to
reveal details of the role of the first couple in
the deal. He was entitled, said a majority of the
justices, to "executive privilege".
Nonetheless, the two women, president and
former president, still have much in common.
Aquino survived half a dozen coup attempts, while
Arroyo has survived at least two of them. All of
them have had the backing of military officials.
One prominent foe of both women has been Gregorio
Honasan, a former military officer and graduate of
the Philippine Military Academy, who is now back
in the Philippine Senate.
The bottom-line
question, though, is, if not Arroyo, who? Signs of
an alliance between Aquino and Estrada hardly
inspire confidence, and Aquino's vice president,
Noli De Castro, is a former TV newsreader with
virtually no political experience at all. "Estrada
is trying to package himself as an alternative,"
said long-time political analyst and journalist
Carlos Conde.
"He's one of the weakest
links in the opposition. It was a big turn-off
seeing him on stage with Cory after she helped
bring him down." But with Aquino out of the way,
Arroyo seems increasingly likely to see through
the end of her term in 2010. As Conde put it, "We
ain't got much by way of options."
Journalist Donald Kirk
is a frequent visitor to the Philippines and is
the author of the books Philippines in Crisis: US Power
Versus Local Revolt and Looted: The
Philippines after the Bases.
(Copyright
2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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