[Philippines] 'People power' ended dictatorship, not poverty, corruption

from INQ7

THE IMAGES of "people power" are iconic: nuns kneeling in prayer in front of tanks, and unarmed civilians trying to push back military vehicles with their bare hands. The show of bravery hid the fear that many felt at a turning point in Philippine history.

"I was waiting for those nuns to scamper away," recalled Agapito Aquino, brother of Benigno Aquino, the opposition leader assassinated during martial rule. "I could not be the first to run away, I would lose face. We stayed because it was too embarrassing to run."

Twenty years after authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos' ouster, the Philippines is an unruly democracy with a vigorous press but that is still afflicted by poverty, corruption, and violence.

Opposition groups planned protests on February 25 against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who faces accusations of election-rigging as well as coup rumors.

Her government is struggling to coordinate its response to a massive landslide that wiped out a village last week, with 1,000 feared dead.

or all the problems of this former US-held territory, the legacy of the peaceful grass roots movement that toppled Marcos after years of repression is a source of pride and national identity.

The euphoric festival of "people power" contrasts with the political tumult that struck other parts of Asia: Indonesia's violent transition from authoritarian rule in 1998, or the 1989 pro-democracy campaign in China's Tiananmen Square that ended when soldiers gunned down student protesters.

But the outcome of peaceful opposition to Marcos was far from certain, coming years ahead of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

Moreover, the Philippine protesters' bold move in 1986 after years of human rights violations was more opportunistic than carefully planned.

Suspicion that Marcos was preparing for one-man rule began in August 1971 when he suspended the writ of habeas corpus, allowing police to make arrests without warrants.

Marcos imposed martial law in September 1972, a year before his second and final term was to expire. For the next 14 years, he ruled by decree. Thousands were jailed, and many dissidents were killed by security forces, or vanished.

On Feb. 7, 1986, snap presidential elections that were marred by fraud galvanized protesters. Marcos had been challenged by Corazon Aquino, Benigno's widow. She claimed widespread cheating and called for civil disobedience.

Elements of the military, Marcos' one-time instrument of repression, then triggered his downfall.

Agapito Aquino was at a party drinking with friends on February 22, when he heard then-defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and military vice chief of staff Fidel Ramos demand at a news conference that Marcos resign.

Opposition leaders were suspicious of the split between Marcos and his former supporters. One then-senator advised Aquino: "Let them shoot each other."

"I said, 'The enemy of my enemy is my ally,' and so we must help this breakaway group so that they will continue to break," Aquino recalled.

The plan was to assemble people outside the Isetann Department store and march to the two camps where the military rebels were based to discourage Marcos and his loyalist troops from attacking.

Aquino said he went to the store about an hour before midnight and found only five other people there. "I didn't know whether these were rallyists or spies," he said.

Others began trickling in, then dozens more, then hundreds. By midnight, the march had started with several thousand in tow.

"It was easy to be courageous because when you moved forward, there would be hundreds if not thousands behind you," Aquino said.

Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin had spoken on radio, urging Filipinos to protect the breakaway faction of the military.

Franciscan nuns immediately headed for a highway near the military camps to set up a food brigade for protesters of bread, hard-boiled eggs, and hot dogs.

By dawn, tens of thousands had assembled in front of the military camps. The crowd grew to several hundred thousand -- 1 million by some estimates -- during the four-day revolt.

Later Sunday, Marcos sent marines in tanks to intimidate the crowd, and rumors spread that loyalist troops would shell the rebels. But the people didn't budge and the soldiers held their fire.

Lawyer Nasser Marohomsalic, a member of a clandestine Muslim group that opposed Marcos, went to the rally with his wife, son and neighbors. He said most of the protesters were not activists, but ordinary citizens.

"The people were angry with Marcos," Marohomsalic said. "You didn't need to invite people. People went because this opportunity will not pass again."

As Marcos and his family fled into exile aboard US military helicopters, crowds swarmed into the Malacañang presidential palace and gawked at the opulence enjoyed by their former ruler.

They roamed hurriedly abandoned rooms, including the separate bedrooms of Marcos and his wife Imelda, and posed for photographs in Marcos' office.

Many protesters mistrusted the military rebels, and feared the return to power of the old elite.

Twenty years later, corruption, deep political rifts, as well as armed rebellions and a huge gap between the rich and poor, plague the Philippines.

But Crescencia Lucero, a Franciscan nun, was among those convinced Marcos had to go, regardless of the consequences.

"Whatever the change," she remembers saying, "I want to be part of it."