Aquino faces growing revolt and instability

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In spite of heightened expectations, conditions for workers and peasants have not improved. Land reform has not been implemented.

SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 1987 11 The Aug. 28 coup attempt against the government of Corazon Aquino constituted the most serious challenge to the current Philippine regime in the 18 months since the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos.

The defeated conspirators led by Col. Gregorio Honasan did not emerge empty-handed. The shock which followed led to the resignation of Aquino's cabinet and the removal from the government of the last of the liberals, former human-rights attorney and presidential secretary Joker Arroyo.

The coup pushed vice president and foreign minister Salvador Laurel to break with Aquino, calling her "soft" in handling the war against communist guerrillas. Laurel's action moves him closer to the positions of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, the former national-defense minister ousted by Aquino in November, who also criticized Aquino's handling of the insurgency.

Much to the satisfaction of Laurel, Enrile, and Honasan-as well as the U.S. government—the most important consequence of the coup is the probable intensification of the military campaign against the Communist Party-led New People's Army (NPA).

Government's unity dissolves Aquino's supporters had been lulled by the apparent popularity of the government shown by the overwhelming approval of the Aquino-backed constitution in January and the election of an Aquino-dominated congress in May. They thought that military opposition had subsided with the removal of Defense Minister Enrile. Instead, the opposition grew bolder as popular support of the government became progressively passive.

It is significant that the much-vaunted "people power" which gave the presidency to Aquino was nowhere to be seen at the height of the latest coup. Yet only two days before, a general strike protesting an Aug. 14 hike in fuel prices had rocked the country and paralyzed its largest cities. Led by the May First Movement (KMU) labor federation, 6000 had marched on the presidential palace. These actions forced Aquino to partially roll back the price increase.

The recent coup reveals once again the fragility of the unstable coalition governing the country. The February 1986 rebellion resulted in the forced marriage of disparate forces.

On the one hand, disaffected elements of the armed forces saw in the removal of Marcos and his corrupt army cronies the chance to "professionalize" its war against the peasant guerrillas of the NPA. On the other hand, the anti-Marcos liberals influencing Aquino believed that the NPA could only be defeated through reforms and negotiations.

But still other civilians, section of the oligarchy estranged from Marcos, balked at fundamental changes in the agrarian structure of a nation whose rural provinces are heavily dominated by a plantation economy.

A vacillating Aquino proved unable to implement any coherent policy in any area, including the conduct of the war. Still, her public statements increasingly revealed progressive movement toward the right.

Unlike earlier attempts, the latest coup did not have a pro-Marcos flavor. Rather, the rebellion was engineered by soldiers who had organized a Reform the Armed forces Movement (RAM) in the waning days of the old regime. Identified with former Defense Minister Enrile, these men perceive the present army leadership under Gen. Fidel Ramos to be holding back a more aggressive counterinsurgency campaign.

Aquino's broken promises

Col. Honasan and the rebel leadership remain at large, reportedly having given the government an Oct. 27 deadline to "realign" her government. Nevertheless, Aquino has already gone quite far in an attempt to appease the army.

Aquino's public pronouncements against the NPA have taken on a more belligerent tone. She no longer mentions her original vow to disband the Civilian Home Defense Forces and now openly encourages the formation of similar anti-communist vigilante groups that terrorize the peasantry and shantytown dwellers, particularly in Mindanao.

In the wake of the coup attempt, Aquino supporters now openly talk of declaring a state of emergency, effectively reinstating martial law.

By the same token, Aquino has reneged on her promises to eliminate the causes which gave birth to the peasant revolutionary movement. It took the new government 14 months to come up with a lukewarm land-reform program.

Largely implementing the discredited measure initiated by Marcos 15 years ago, the first phase of the six-year reform is restricted to selling peasants rice and corn lands larger than 17 hectares. Moreover, Aquino refused to implement the measure before the convening of the landlorddominated Congress in July, thus opening the door to further dilution of the proposed reform.

By contrast, the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP), representing some 500,000 farmers, has demanded the distribution of all land without compensation.

Moreover, dependent on their strength, peasants backed by the NPA have won partial reforms in perhaps 30 percent of the countryside. These include reduction in land rents, lowering interest rates, securing higher prices for crops, and even challenges to land titles. (Philippine Report, July 1987)

Because the lack of land is the central Gus Gregory issue for two-thirds of the Philippine population and the NPA's chief recruiting tool, it is hardly surprising that even the World Bank criticizes the Aquino proposal as too little, too late.

The left's predicament Yet, the Philippine left has gained only slightly from the erosion of the Aquino government. While the strength of the NPA in the countryside has remained substantially intact, the urban working-class left has made a slow recovery from the isolation which followed the February 1986 rebellion.

Aquino managed to deflect the left's criticism onto her rightist opponents. A good illustration was the spectacle of government ministers heading the massive march protesting the "Mendiola Massacre,' farmers demanding land. In that protest, 19 farmers were killed by marines defending the presidential palace.

The Aug. 26 general strike was perhaps the first successful large-scale protest which Aquino could not coopt. Once again, on Sept. 21, tens of thousands were mobilized in strikes and demonstrations after the assassination of Leandro Alejandro, general secretary of the mass organization BAYAN. The protesters denounced the "militarization" of the Aquino regime.

Nevertheless, the left remains relatively powerless. In part the legacy of its isolation during the "February Revolution," the left's marginalization also stems from its ambiguous and even initally uncritical political attitude toward Aquino and the civilian members of her cabinet.

The left's emphasis on attacking the "fascist" holdovers incorporated in the goverment helped Aquino eliminate Enrile while gaining more time for herself. Seen as the only way to overcome the left's isolation, this stance also served to confuse workers and peasants who looked for direction from mass organizations like the KMU and KMP that were led by the left.

These leaderships sought at all costs to reinstate the broad alliances forged with the urban middle classes in the fight against Marcos. But the fall of the dictatorship and Aquino's accession to power destroyed the basis for such a degree of unity.

The inevitable disillusionment Led by their upper layers and the capitalist elite opposition, the middle classes supported the Aquino government. Left with no other political alternative, the workers, urban poor, and even the peasantry followed suit, even though the agenda of the new regime was counterposed to the fundamental interests of the working classes.

The inevitable disillusion has slowly occurred. The KMU and KMP helped to form the Partido ng Bayan (People's Party) independent of Aquino in 1986. The three organizations opposed the ratification of the Aquino-backed constitution earlier this year. They organized an opposition "Alliance for New Politics" slate in the May national elections, but failed to win any senatorial seats.

Yet even this latest step toward independent worker-peasant political action was marred by the slate's willingness to extend support to certain "progressive" candidates of the Aquino slate such as former Labor Minister Augusto Sanchez.

The latest crisis of the Aquino government reflects the continuing inability of the Philippine ruling class to satisfy the needs of the vast majority of the country. Torn by disagreement in its highest councils, the new regime finds the methods of its predecessor more and more attractive. But with each crisis, Aquino's hold over the subjugated classes has weakened.

If Col. Honasan's Aug. 28 coup aimed at escalating the war in the countryside, the Aug. 26 general strike showed that the cities are not immune from the overall struggle. The key to this will be the continued independent political organization and mobilization of the workers, peasants, and urban poor of the Philippines.

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SOLIDARITE Ste-CSN-FTOR TOM TORONTO-On June 3, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the premiers of the country's provinces signed a new Constitutional Amendment. The overriding effect of the Accord-based on a text first drafted at Meech Lake, north of Ottawa—is to deepen and perpetuate the assault on Quebec's national rights.

At the same time, the capacity of the federal government to implement social programs across English Canada against the resistance of reactionary provincial governments is undermined.

In the past, the government of Quebec refused to sign the Constitution cooked up in 1981 by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the other nine premiers. The agreement deprived Quebec of its historic veto over future constitutional change.

It also denied that Quebec is a nation with the right to decide its own future and to take whatever measures may be necessary to protect its language and culture.

Despite some fancy window-dressing, the HALTE Quebec's federations (CEQ, CSN, and FTQ) oppose the new accord.