The dust has scarcely cleared after the “Wowowee” stampede and the recent Leyte landslide calamity, when the Philippines is once back on the world news map after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s declaration of a State of Emergency.
International protest on media crackdown
General Order No. 5, implementing Proclamation 1017, which Arroyo signed last February 24, invokes Section 17, Article 12 of the Philippine Constitution, which gives the president the power to “temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately owned public utility or business affected with public interest” in times of national emergency. The proclamation, in effect, paves the way for warrantless arrests, government takeover of utilities, including media, and a ban on rallies.
This move has not gone without howls of protest from members of the Philippine media, in response to police implementing “standards” for media to follow, in response to the police raid of the office of the Daily Tribune, a newspaper that has been critical of the Arroyo government, in response to reports of police milling around top broadcast stations ABS-CBN and GMA-7.
Messages of solidarity have poured in from international organizations condemning the attempt to stifle the free press.
“Democracy in the Philippines has been threatened in the years since the 1986 revolution, but no administration has used the restrictive means your government has taken. It’s deeply disturbing to see political unrest threaten the precious and deeply held concepts of press freedom and democracy,” said the New York-based Committee to Project Journalists on a message posted on the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism website.
“We fear a wave of arrests and more closures of newspapers critical of the government,” said the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
“Closing newspapers and arresting journalists are steps that are antithetical to democratic governance,” said James Bettinger, the Director of the John S. Knight for Professional Journalists at Stanford University, in a statement on the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) website.
“The harassment of the press is uncalled for, the guidelines are unnecessary and unconstitutional, and the whole move to control the media is suspicious,” according to he Bangkok-based Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA).
Similar statements have also been sent in by various concerned members of the international media to the NUJP, all condemning the crackdown on press freedom in the country.
‘Muted People Power’
Major U.S. newspapers have painted a very bleak picture of Philippine democracy after Arroyo’s declaration.
“Thousands of Filipinos had planned to gather Saturday (February 25) to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ‘people power’ revolt that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos. Instead, they were left to ponder what had become of the freedoms they had won,” according to “Quiet in the Streets in Manila: ‘People power’ is muted by more arrests and a crackdown on media in the Philippines,” by Richard Paddock, published in the L.A. Times last February 26.
The L.A. Times story quoted Presidential Spokeman Ignacio Bunye as saying the morning of February 24, “President Gloria slept well.” An image of calm in contrast to a nation, yet again, in turmoil.
Democracy a ruthless contest
A news report posted on the Washington Post states that nothing has changed since the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
“Today, Philippine democracy is little more than a ruthless contest among rival clans with such names as Aquino, Arroyo and Marcos. Political parties are largely irrelevant, and most Filipinos are relegated to the role of spectators,” according to the article, “In 20 Years Since Marcos, Little Stability for Philippines,” by Alan Sipress of the Post.
Sipress further writes that the cost to the Philippine economy “has been tremendous.”
“The perpetual political crisis has scared off investment, both domestic and foreign, while national leaders have often been too preoccupied with their own survival to pursue long-term strategies of development that could reverse the country’s slide into poverty.”
Sipress concludes that even if the Philippines has come to closely resemble the U.S. democratic style of government, “the electoral system failed to deliver American success.”
People Power fatigue
The New York Times news analysis, “Political Turmoil Again Thwarts
Progress in the Philippines,” by Seth Mydans, published last February 26, described the latest crisis to hit the nation as “a discouraging spectacle of national futility,” and “the latest in a relentless procession of political disruptions that have crippled political and economic development for the last two decades.”
“Now, a new catchphrase has entered the Philippine lexicon: people
power fatigue. This nation of political romantics has sunk into a mood of weariness and disillusionment,” according to the NY Times.
Instead of “People Power” being “the Philippines’s shining moment,” of wresting power away from a dictator, it has degenerated to something short of a spectacle, an obsession with trying to recreate the moment, “assuring continued instability with seemingly unending coup rumors and coup attempts, and with repeated popular uprisings.” The original model, “seen as a model of nonviolent resistance,” is now a “letdown,” “an object lesson in the limits and even the destructive effects of a popular uprising.”
The article was also critical of former President Corazon Aquino,
stating that while Aquino’s prime legacies were “restoration of
democracy, and the democratic transition to a new president,” “yet, she has led mass demonstrations against all three of her democratically elected successors.”
This power of electing a president and having the power to also remove a democratically elected president has perpetuated a self-defeating notion of democracy. “People Power” has now become “an odd-sounding term that has helped Filipinos define themselves as an idealistic, righteous and democratic nation. After 20 years of disappointment, the term has lost its power to inspire and has become, to many here, an oxymoron.”
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of Emergency has once again shifted the world’s attention to the Philippines, albeit in a negative way. It is not a pretty picture. From the outside looking in, the country seems like a nation who cannot resolve its own issues within the parameters of its chosen system of government.
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March 1, 2006 at 4:18 pm
James
The Philippines is receiving a lot of negative attention around the world because of GMA’s thirst for power. Amb. Ernesto Maceda has some insights you might find interesting:
“Signal honor. A New York Times columnist notes that the Philippines has finally made it to the top through GMA’s declaration of a state of national emergency. He pointed out that there are only two countries in the world today that are in a state of national emergency — the Philippines and Iraq.
Even the Vatican seems to think along the same line. The Pope has just transferred the hot spot Papal Nuncio in Baghdad to be the new Papal Legate in Manila.
Previously, the Philippines was accorded the distinction as being second only to Iraq as the most dangerous place for journalists. Something now recklessly magnified by Gen. Lomibao’s hardline stance against media.”
March 1, 2006 at 10:36 pm
coffeewithamee
I’ve read a news article on the transfer of the church “ambassador” (I forget the correct term) from Iraq to the Philippines.
The comparison of Philippines to Iraq is indeed alarming. Even saying “Philippines” in the same breath as “Iraq” is alarming. Life goes on for Filipinos even after the state of emergency but the declaration has made the world look at the country in a different, bad way, bad for business, bad for the country’s future.
I think what is equally dismaying is the fact that the people are too tired to care anymore. In the other blogs I’ve read, most bloggers expressed sentiments of wanting the country to move forward. They just want jobs and work. But the thing is, we need to deal with the current problems in order to move forward. Things as they are cannot just be overlooked.