Aquino’s Last Chance?

For the second time in less than 10 months President Corazon Aquino has a chance to give her government the shaking up that it cries out for, and just maybe to give the Philippines the more efficient leadership that it needs. The last time Aquino was handed the resignations of all her top appointees she shuffled the pack and discarded her trouble-making defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile. This time the prime candidates for replacement are Joker Arroyo, her executive secretary and closest adviser, and Teodor Locsin Jr., her special counsel. Aquino is deeply loyal to both. If she tries to save their political careers, though, she almost certainly will succeed in jeopardizing her own.

Arroyo in particular has become an intolerable burden, whose administrative ineptitude is matched by an abrasive arrogance. The Philippine armed forces have always regarded Arroyo as at least sympathetic to the communist cause. Now many of the officers accuse him openly of attempting to sabotage the military effort to combat the communist-led insurgency. Influential members of the country’s Roman Catholic hierarchy and business community who gave Aquino powerful support as she led the fight to end the Marcos dictatorship are similarly disturbed by the way in which Arroyo wields his very considerable power. This week, in an extraordinary three-hour speech, Arroyo attacked his critics in the military, the press and the progressive business community. He began his harangue with a call to close ranks. By the time he finished, the divisions within the government and between the government and its democratic opponents had been immeasurably deepened.

Aquino has survived five military attempts to topple her government in the last 18 months. The latest, less than two weeks ago, came perilously close to success. However much Aquino may still command the affections of most Filipinos, there is a growing sense that her luck and her time are rapidly running out. Common sense makes clear that she can’t be blamed for failing to resolve the enormous problems that she inherited as a result of the Marcos misrule. She can be faulted, though, for the inefficiency and indecisiveness with which her government has addressed these problems, and for the corruption that has been allowed to continue under her tenure. Aquino now has the opportunity to renovate her government by bringing in people more committed to furthering the nation’s interests than their own. It is a chance to produce change that is not likely to be given again.