Philippine Agenda Differs for People of the Interior

This city has been on a roller coaster of emotions since Jan. 22, and the ride is not yet over.

First came outrage at the killing by government soldiers of 19 protesters as they marched across Mendiola Bridge toward the presidential palace demanding land reform. Then came bitter recriminations and suspicions that the dead had been simply pawns in someone’s game-plan to upset the plebiscite on the draft constitution scheduled for Monday. The question whether the “someone” was the “leftist” leaders of the march or the “rightist” military, or both, added to the tension.

The tension escalated as political-action groups scheduled another march Jan. 26 to protest the killings. But, in a gesture reminiscent of the bloodless revolution of last February, Cabinet ministers, clergymen and President Corazon Aquino’s appointment secretary--all of whom had marched with these same groups in protest against the Marcos regime--joined in at the president’s suggestion, walking arm-in-arm with the protesters across Mendiola Bridge and past the presidential palace. For a moment the tension was relieved.

But the relief was not to last. That very night 160 soldiers loyal to Ferdinand E. Marcos attempted to seize two air bases and a TV station. The coup attempt failed, but it revealed once again the divisions within the military and the tenuous nature of Gen. Fidel V. Ramos’ leadership as chief of staff.

While Manila was having its emotional ups and downs, I was having ups and downs of another kind, on the incredibly rough roads in the interior of Mindanao, the great southern island and “wild west” of the Philippines--a beautiful land beset by poverty, ignorance, government neglect, age-old cultural conflicts, plundering by logging and mining companies, and the displacement of settlers by the military, and by Filipino and foreign agribusiness firms.

In the town of Bayog, we heard rumors of the Mendiola Bridge shootings the day after the event; searching the radio bands the next morning, I finally got some details--on short-wave via Radio Moscow.

But the Mendiola incident was not the Bayog residents’ main concern. Far more immediate to them was the sudden withdrawal, at the insistence of the assistant parish priest, of the military garrison. It was thought to have been responsible for murders, house burnings and inciting a fanatical religious sect to do the army’s work for it by killing real or suspected members of the communist-led New People’s Army.

With the parish priest, I attended a meeting in an outlying settlement. About 200 people gathered in a school before blackboards riddled with bullet holes. Together the men discussed their hopes that, with a new military detachment in place, the rebels might be rehabilitated and settled on homesteads, the fanatics might give up killing, the army would behave, and people, finally, could regain some control over their lives. The most eloquent speaker was a tribesman, a refugee, whose main concern was his small hillside farm and his root crops, which were being harvested by others.

No one at the meeting spoke of Mendiola or the plebiscite, and few of them had seen the draft constitution, but many of them will be voting on Monday. Throughout Mindanao, those who have radios are being subjected to an intense propaganda barrage from commentators, thought to be paid for by Marcos, to urge the draft’s defeat. The civil officials in many places are passive or busy positioning themselves for local elections scheduled for later in the year.

In Bayog and neighboring towns, the church has actively promoted voter education campaigns on the draft. On Jan. 26, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference issued a statement calling for increased dedication to the search for peace and justice, while sharply criticizing extremist tendencies of both “right” and “left”--the groups urging that the draft be rejected.

Yet in Bayog, the acting mayor, who was appointed by Manila, is so unpopular that many may vote no simply to show their displeasure. Elsewhere, the sheer ineptness of the Aquino government may produce a similar reaction.

There may be other, last-ditch efforts to derail the plebiscite. Nevertheless, I expect that it will go through, and the personal popularity of “Cory” will assure ratification of the draft. Recent events, by unmasking the extremist and violence-prone tendencies of both right and left, have mobilized and strengthened the center forces and increased the probability of a resounding yes vote.

It even may be that the deaths at Mendiola and the rapprochement between the administration and the “moderate left” will serve to focus attention on the urgency of social, not merely political, change, and the importance of establishing communication with the farmers and the “little people” of places like Bayog. If so, it could be a major step toward long-term civility.