Philippines totters on the brink of a civil war

Scan page 1

As bombs rocked central Manila last month, troops judged to be loyal to President Cory Aquino were placed on "red alert." Soldiers with high-powered rifles were seen patrolling street corners. Siege/counter-siege military exercises kept residents awake.

Suddenly, the Philippines faced the prospect of civil war. On Nov. 23, Aquino was forced to reshuffle her cabinet. She fired Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile following rumors of his involvement in preparations for a coup.

Enrile's replacement, Rafael "Rocky" Ileto, was a military commander against Hukbalahap rebels in the 1950s. His appointment foreshadows an intensification of the war effort against the Communist Party-led New Peoples* Army (NPA).

For months, Enrile had served as spokesman for the armed forces and right wing, voicing their demands that Aquino dismiss "left-leaning" cabinet ministers and back full military operations against the NPA.

Enrile also urged a crackdown on the labor unions, especially mentioning the May 1st Movement (Kilusang Mayo Uno, the KMU) trade-union federation. Since 1980, the KMU has grown in membership from 35,000 to about 800,000. It has organized hundreds of strikes in the past year.

According to the San Francisco Exam -iner, members of the Defense Ministry spoke privately of the need to round up and perhaps eliminate "communist" leaders in the labor movement in Manila.

These threats came to fruition when Rolando Olalia, leader of the KMU and of the newly formed People's Party, was assassinated. On Nov. 20, the last day of a four-day general strike, over 100,000 people joined a funeral march for Olalia. "Long live revolution," some marchers chanted. "Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)."

So far, however, the CPP leadership has relegated "revolution" to the future, opting on 14)