PHL communist insurgency, ‘the most brutal in the world’ (Part Four)

By Cecilio Arillo, Businessmirror, Aug 29, 2018

Part Four

The legitimacy of the Aquino administration

THE lack of legitimacy haunts the Aquino administration from the day it unnecessarily usurped power from a duly elected president. According to a young and prominent lawyer from Batangas province who was murdered in front of the Manila Hilton sometime in May 1986, this lack of legitimacy was compounded by the summary dismissal of duly elected and often times popular local officials to provide space for Madame Aquino’s clients, the leftists.

Thousands of civil servants were similarly discharged on the pretext that they might have been loyal to her predecessor. The duly elected representative assembly—the Batasang Pambansa—to which 59 opposition members had been elected in 1984, was dissolved.

Finally, Mrs. Aquino handpicked 48 men and women to write a new constitution. The constitution, together with Aquino’s tenure of office, was presented to the people in a referendum on February 2, 1987. Philippine newspapers reported that “Aquino seriously campaigned for its ratification.” She offered incentive packages for a “Yes” vote. “Public funds were utilized to buy the affirmative votes. In Bicol she announced the availability of P2.4 billion and in the Ilocos region she pledged some P5 billion of public works funds.”

Leaders of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan accused her of using public funds to bribe and buy votes to ratify the illegally drafted constitution. Sen. Arturo Tolentino and other KBL stalwarts accused Aquino of using people’s money for her personal triumphs. Not satisfied with using public funds to ensure ratification of her constitution, “Aquino was reported by the Philippine press, particularly the Observer, to have pressured civil servants to vote affirmatively, lest they end up with no means of livelihood.

On May 11, 1987, the Aquino administration conducted what the opposition called, a “fraudulent election.” The tone of irregularity was according to the Grand Alliance for Democracy party, set by Aquino in her speech in Batangas the day that marked the opening of the campaign, when she said “the new Congress should not seat a single opposition candidate.”

Philippine newspapers carried news reports that the secretary for local government, the late Jaime Ferrer, ordered all local executives and officials to campaign for administration candidates under pain of dismissal from office. The message was that all the appointees and government employees were obliged under threat of dismissal to campaign for the administration. The Philippine media dubbed the May 11, 1987, election as “the most fraudulent and the most dishonest electoral exercise since the Philippines became independent.”

Having gained control of Congress through rigged elections, the Aquino administration proceeded to hold local elections on January 21, 1988. The result was a massive duplication of the May 11, 1987, electoral exercise. The Philippine media reported massive vote buying, terrorism and cheating. The local elections also revealed that Aquino was not as popular as she and her followers perceived her to be. In crucial and major areas of the country, even Aquino’s relatives and candidates with her full backing lost in the election.

As noted by observers of the Philippine scene, “the Aquino government does not need deliberate acts of hostility, for it is already too destabilized. Instability was inherent in that administration from its day of inception. Nothing based on deceit, fire and sword can command the obedience of the people.”

The Philippines is virtually back to the period when Marcos implemented martial law, wherein a handful of Filipinos (mostly naturalized citizens) owned and controlled almost the entire nation’s wealth. This group in less than a year and a half has intentionally built an almost indestructible barrier between Filipino politics and economics. It, therefore, ensured the continuing enslavement of the majority of the Filipinos by the possession of mostly unearned wealth.

And because of the alliance entered into before the 1986 presidential snap election by the Aquino administration with the Left, as admitted by Press Secretary Teodoro Benigno in the June 12 to 17, 1988, issue of the Philippine Observer, and as evidenced by the “Declaration of Unity” document signed by Madame Aquino on December 26, 1984, Filipinos are enslaved both by retrogressive influence of a small handful of Filipinos and the repressive acts of government to conform to their unholy alliance.

That day, Filipinos suffered from a complete lack of guidance, leadership and authority; one where the “self-appointed royalty” become in the words of a prominent Filipino lawyer, so egocentric that the majority of the people following their footsteps display a mentality dominated by greed and total self-concern.”

As the events unfold before his eyes, President Marcos cannot but feel deep pain, shame and sorrow. “At the same time, it gave me the unrelenting resolve to offer my life, fortune and honor to help lift up our people from the death throes of this misery. It is a resolve to do whatever is necessary before the backbone of Philippine society succumbed to the inevitable destruction,” he said.

Retrospectively, President Duterte must charter a new strategic direction to safeguard the country from the perils of communism and terrorism.