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Philippine Coup Attempt

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The latest coup attempt in the Philippines has failed again. This time, though, the coup’s underlying message is getting increasingly loud and clear: The Cory magic is no more, and it’s time to listen to the rebels’ demands. At least, those legitimate ones. They have two: Stop the widespread corruption in the government, and destroy the communist threat.

Of course, Corazon Aquino still has the support of the majority of her people, but this support has been eroding at an increasingly rapid and alarming pace, mainly because of her failure to check corruption in the government.

The prevailing feeling is that there is simply too much corruption, both in the civilian government and the military sector, much like the type which characterized the 20-year Marcos rule. The late Ferdinand Marcos’ lengthy term saw the birth and institutionalization of graft and corruption, so much so that it regrettably became a way of life among Filipinos.

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At the outset, the Aquino administration was seemingly bent on driving corruption out of the government service. For a while it was successful, primarily due to the effort of those honest people that she appointed to help her rid the nation of corruption. A year later, it started to fail miserably, largely because Aquino’s ruling party decided, for political convenience and to achieve some semblance of stability, to take into its fold the very same corrupt politicians, feudal lords and military leaders that the Marcos regime spawned and coddled. Inevitably then, it became business as usual for these corrupt men.

Ironically, corruption and the growing communist threat were the two main issues Aquino used during her campaign against Marcos in 1986, issues which are haunting her now. Fortunately, it is not yet too late for Aquino to restore her lost appeal. According to the latest polls, the Filipino people still trust her as a person. The polls also disclosed that it is not she, but her close relatives and their political cohorts against whom the Filipino people are up in arms--summarily accusing them of rampant corruption and influence-peddling.

DANTE A. GUITIERREZ

Buena Park

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