The Philippines this week marks 25 years since a revolution ousted former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, a “people power” uprising that provided one template for the revolts now sweeping the Arab world.
The feeling of popular joy then is being repeated now in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia, but the Philippines also offers a cautionary tale as it struggles with economic stagnation, corruption and recurrent political chaos.
“Our revolution inspired a lot of similar events in the world; many took a cue from our peaceful movement in ousting a dictator,” said Ramon Casiple, a former activist who now heads the Manila-based Institute for Political and Electoral Reform. “But 25 years after we won over Marcos, our democracy remains very weak — we have all the institutions, but they lack content and substance. For countries like Egypt, they will also realize that getting rid of a dictator is easier than rebuilding and putting in place democratic processes that work.”
In February 1986, millions of Filipinos took to the streets to end Marcos’ brutal two-decade rule. As with this month’s ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, a crucial step was the withdrawal of US support for his regime.
However, those involved in the uprising and other analysts said the Philippine’s ongoing struggle to cement a stable democracy showed a path that countries in the Middle East and North Africa should avoid.
Casiple noted that the Philippines, a nation of 94 million, remained mired in poverty, graft and general lawlessness.
He said that — as during the Marcos years — the military, the police and politicians who control private armies all continued to commit large-scale rights abuses.
And even though Marcos was forced into exile in Hawaii, where he died, his family is back in power, with his wife a congresswoman and son an influential senator eyeing a run at the presidency in 2016 elections.
None of the Marcos clan has been effectively prosecuted, and the government has failed to fully recover the exiled former president’s fabled billions of dollars allegedly stolen from state coffers and stashed in secret accounts abroad.
Meanwhile, communist and Islamist insurgencies that exploded during Marcos’ years also continue to rage and claim many lives each year.
Rights groups say a culture of impunity also still pervades, with officials free to flaunt the law and organize the killings of activists or journalists.
The military has also shown a deep reluctance to relinquish its control on power, mounting a string of coup attempts immediately against the regime that followed Marcos, as well as other less frequent ones in recent years.
Many now pin their hopes on Philippine President Benigno Aquino, who came to power in a landslide election win last year on the back of lingering support for his mother, the “people power” heroine Corazon Aquino.
After her husband was murdered, allegedly by Marcos’ men, “Cory” Aquino famously transformed from humble housewife to revolutionary leader and spearheaded the 1986 uprising.
The matriarch Aquino was installed president after Marcos and oversaw a rewriting of the Constitution, a document many laud for its integrity, while lamenting the lack of respect many in power now show for it.
Benigno Aquino III, the current president, himself noted that many tyrants had been toppled peacefully around the world through similar uprisings since 1986.
“The Filipino people made this possible. And while we gave that possibility to the world, another possibility has for so long eluded us — that of our nation fulfilling its great potential,” he said this week.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese