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Philippines The Snap Election and Marcos's Ouster
Indicative of the importance of United States support for his
regime, Marcos announced his decision to hold a "snap"
presidential election on an American television talk show, "This
Week with David Brinkley," in November 1985. He promised
skeptical Americans access for observer teams, setting February
7, 1986, a year before his six-year presidential term ran out, as
the date for the election. He believed his early reelection would
solidify United States support, silence his critics in the
Philippines and the United States, and perhaps banish the ghost
of Benigno Aquino. Marcos's smoothly running, well-financed
political machine and the divided nature of the opposition
promised success, but his decision proved to be a monumental
blunder.
Cardinal Sin, an astute negotiator described by one diplomat
as "one of the best politicians in the Philippines," arranged a
political alliance of convenience between Corazon Aquino and
Salvador Laurel, who had announced his own candidacy but agreed
to run as Aquino's vice-presidential candidate. Aquino had
immense popular support and Laurel brought his superior
organizational skills to the campaign. Their agreement to run
together was arranged just in time for the deadline for
submission of candidacies in early December. The church hierarchy
gave its moral support to the opposition ticket. Cardinal Sin,
realizing that poor people would not refuse money offered for
votes and that the ethic of utang na loob would oblige
them to vote for the briber, admonished the voters that an
immoral contract was not binding and that they should vote
according to their consciences.
On the day of the election, NAMFREL guarded ballot boxes and
tried to get a rapid tally of the results in order to prevent
irregularities. A team of United States observers, which included
a joint congressional delegation, issued a mild criticism of
electoral abuses, but individual members expressed shock and
indignation: Senator Richard Lugar claimed that between 10 and 40
percent of the voters had been disenfranchised by the removal of
their names from registration rolls. The results tabulated by the
government's Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed Marcos
leading, whereas NAMFREL figures showed a majority for the
Aquino-Laurel ticket. On February 9, computer operators at
COMELEC observed discrepancies between their figures and those
officially announced and walked out in protest, at some risk to
their lives. The church condemned the election as fraudulent, but
on February 15, the Marcos-dominated National Assembly proclaimed
him the official winner. Despite the election fraud, the Reagan
administration's support for Marcos remained strong, as did its
uncertainty concerning Corazon Aquino. Yet a consensus of policy
makers in the White House, Department of State, Pentagon, and
Congress was emerging and advised the withdrawal of support from
Marcos.
On February 22, Enrile and General Fidel Ramos, commander of
the Philippine Constabulary, issued a joint statement demanding
Marcos's resignation. They established their rebel headquarters
inside Camp Aguinaldo and the adjoining Camp Crame in Metro
Manila, which was guarded by several hundred troops. Marcos
ordered loyal units to suppress the uprising, but Cardinal Sin,
broadcasting over the Catholic-run Radio Veritas (which became
the voice of the revolution), appealed to the people to bring
food and supplies for the rebels and to use nonviolence to block
pro-Marcos troop movements.
Hundreds of thousands responded. In the tense days that
followed, priests, nuns, ordinary citizens, and children linked
arms with the rebels and faced down, without violence, the tanks
and machine guns of government troops. Many of the government
troops defected, including the crews of seven helicopter
gunships, which seemed poised to attack the massive crowd on
February 24 but landed in Camp Crame to announce their support
for People's Power. Violent confrontations were prevented. The
Philippine troops did not want to wage war on their own people.
Although Marcos held an inauguration ceremony at Malacañang
Palace on February 25, it was boycotted by foreign ambassadors
(with the exception, in an apparently unwitting gaffe, of a new
Soviet ambassador). It was, for the Marcoses, the last, pathetic
hurrah. Advised by a United States senator, Paul Laxalt, who had
close ties to Reagan, to "cut and cut cleanly," Marcos realized
that he had lost United States support for any kind of
arrangement that could keep him in power. By that evening, the
Marcoses had quit the palace that had been their residence for
two decades and were on their way to exile in the United States.
Manila's population surged into Malacañang to view the evidence
of the Marcos's extravagant life-style (including Imelda's muchpublicized hundreds of pairs of expensive, unworn shoes). An
almost bloodless revolution brought Corazon Aquino into office as
the seventh president of the Republic of the Philippines
(see The Rise of Corazon Aquino
, ch. 4).
* * *
David Joel Steinberg's The Philippines provides a good
general introduction to the country and pays considerable
attention to historical background. For good discussions of the
Spanish period, see John L. Phelan's The Hispanicization of
the Philippines and Robert Reed's Colonial Manila.
Austin Coate's Rizal provides a well-written account of
one of the most extraordinary lives of modern times. On the
American annexation of the islands, Stuart C. Miller's
Benevolent Assimilation is a valuable work. Peter W.
Stanley's Reappraising an Empire is a good study of the
American colonial period, and Theodore Friend's The Blue Eyed
Enemy discusses the Japanese occupation in comparison with
neighboring Indonesia. One of the best accounts of the insurgency
is Benedict J. Kerkvliet's The Huk Rebellion.
Crisis in the Philippines, a collection of essays
edited by John Bresnan, provides an excellent academic discussion
of the Marcos years and the events that brought Corazon Aquino to
the presidency. Waltzing with a Dictator, by Raymond
Bonner, discusses Marcos's relations with the United States,
martial law, and the collapse of the Marcos regime. People
Power, edited by Monina Allarey Mercado, describes the tense
and exuberant atmosphere surrounding the mass movement that
toppled Marcos. (For additional information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of June 1991
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