The Philippines Fighting Back

By Wayne Svoboda

Moments after landing at Manila International Airport last week following a four-day trip to Tokyo, Philippine President Corazon (Cory) Aquino spoke frankly of the fear and tension she felt during her voyage. "My visit to Japan was undertaken with some hesitation," she said. "I was leaving Manila while it was seething with dark rumors."

Although there were no political upheavals during her absence, some observers had wondered before her departure whether Aquino would return as President. During recent weeks the Philippines has been rife with talk of rebellion, and the perfect time for a military coup seemed to be when she was away.

At the center of the controversy was Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, whose criticism of Aquino's presidential performance has been both loud and lengthy. Two weeks ago a plot was uncovered that would have stripped Aquino of her power while retaining her as a political figurehead. Even though it hardly seemed the time for the President to leave the country, Aquino apparently concluded that canceling the trip would only give credence to coup rumors.

Nonetheless, the President was worried enough about what might happen during her absence that she asked Jaime Cardinal Sin, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, to delay a trip to Rome until she returned. Sin played a crucial role during the February uprising that toppled former President Ferdinand Marcos when he turned a church-run radio station over to the opposition and urged people to go into the streets in protest. Aquino told the Cardinal last week, "I'm not here, you're not here. Pity our poor people."

The purpose of Aquino's visit to Japan was to open the way for increased trade between the two countries, court Japanese investment and seek economic assistance. In meetings with Japanese business leaders, the President won over her audience by saying that her government considered Japan its model and inspiration for economic development. To increase exports, Aquino spent time touting the virtues of Philippine garments, food products and electronic parts. As part of her campaign for more investment, she promised Japanese businessmen that her government would keep taxes low and let them repatriate profits. Aquino's pitches for increased Japanese aid met with some success. By the time she left Tokyo, she had obtained a $250 million loan for a coal-fired power station, part of a grant-and-aid package that Aquino optimistically predicted may total as much as $625 million. Aquino called the promises of economic assistance a "very clear message to the Filipino people that the Japanese government strongly supports the Aquino government."

A more dramatic sign of Aquino's success in Japan was the way the usually reserved country swooned over her. "Cory! Cory! Cory!" shouted crowds at Tokyo's Waseda University as they turned out to see her receive an honorary law degree. Japanese girls displayed the same fervor toward Aquino as they had toward the Princess of Wales when she visited the country last May. The visit's most graceful moment occurred at the Imperial Palace, where Aquino and Emperor Hirohito, 85, exchanged gifts -- a vase for Aquino, an oil painting of seashells on a beach for the Emperor. Aquino then brought out something extra special for her host: a haiku, the unrhymed and elegant three-line, 17- syllable verse that originated in Japan in the 14th century. "I made it three years ago when my husband and I were in exile in Boston," Aquino told him. Then she read it aloud:

In pain and sorrow

I have never been alone

Many thanks, dear Lord

The clearly smitten Emperor, who himself writes verses, replied, "It is a very good and excellent haiku." Aquino expressed her gratitude in Japanese, saying, "Domo arigato" (thank you). That was only one of several well- accented Japanese expressions and sentences she used during her visit. Aquino, a child during World War II, lived in Manila under Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945.

While Aquino was all smiles in Japan, she was careful to watch the situation at home. She received daily reports and at midweek called General Fidel Ramos, the armed forces Chief of Staff, who is considered loyal to her. On Monday, the day she left, Enrile met with Ramos and the four armed services commanders. The meeting's ostensible purpose: to review efforts to fight the Communist guerrilla movement. Afterward, Enrile announced that "the country is stable and secure." But then he mysteriously urged Filipinos to "remain calm" amid the "seemingly tense atmosphere in the land." Some diplomats saw that as an ominous sign.

The lack of any military move during Aquino's Japanese tour may have been due in part to the toughness she displayed before her departure. In a speech delivered on national television, Aquino warned her political opponents, "I shall oppose any attempt from any quarter to interfere with or dictate to my government." She admitted that "the country is awash with rumors of an impending coup or an emergency contrived to justify uncalled-for action" and then told supporters that, if necessary, she would ask them once more to "take to the streets." In a rebuke to some armed forces elements, she added, "The function of a soldier is to fight the enemy, not to fight the very government it is ordained to serve." Until recently, Aquino had made conciliatory gestures toward the military to avoid a confrontation with Enrile, but her departure speech showed a new tactic.

Aquino returned to Manila in the same fighting mood. In her airport homecoming speech she attacked officials in her government who have tried to "sabotage" efforts to bring about economic revival and political stability. Enrile, seemingly one of her targets, showed up at the airport in the official receiving line and welcomed her home with a smile and a handshake.

The President had barely arrived when her country's violent political problems resurfaced. On Thursday the stabbed and bullet-riddled bodies of Rolando Olalia, the president of the People's Party and the leader of the country's largest labor federation, and his driver were found beside a Manila highway. His party, a coalition of left-leaning groups, is regarded by many as a stand-in for the banned Communist Party. Before Olalia's murder, the People's Party had promised to take to the streets in a "people's uprising" if anyone attempted a coup.

Enrile and other officials said they knew nothing about what happened to Olalia, but rumors spread that some military leaders hoped that the killing would spark protests by leftists. That would then give the armed forces the excuse for a major crackdown. Another possibility is that he was killed by far leftists who opposed him because he was cooperating with the government. About 5,000 Olalia supporters marched Friday to the Defense Ministry, demanded Enrile's resignation and called a one-day strike for this Monday. The Communist-dominated National Democratic Front, which represents the New People's Army in cease-fire negotiations with the government, refused to attend scheduled talks at week's end and would not say when it might return.

During her first nine months in office, Aquino showed the people of the Philippines and her political opponents the kind of charm she displayed during her Japan visit. The tougher tone of last week's speeches and warnings to the army, however, was new. It may signal that Aquino, tired of being shoved, is ready to shove back.

With reporting by William Stewart/Manila and Barry Hillenbrand/Tokyo