Republic of the Philippines

G

Republic of the Philippines

In 1944 Osmeña succeeded Quezon, who died in the United States, as president of the government-in-exile. Osmeña returned to Manila in 1945, and plans went forward to inaugurate the independent Republic of the Philippines. Manuel Roxas challenged the elderly Osmeña for the presidency and split from the Nationalist Party to form the Liberal Party. Roxas won the election of April 1946 and became the first president of the new republic, with Elpidio Quirino as vice president. The Republic of the Philippines was formally proclaimed on July 4, 1946.

The postwar administration faced staggering problems. The country’s infrastructure and economy were in ruins. To help in the republic’s rehabilitation, the United States established preferential trade relations and awarded the new nation several hundred million dollars in war damage and rehabilitation aid. As a condition of receiving the aid, the Philippines was forced to agree to give U.S. investors parity, or equal economic rights with Filipinos. The parity privileges included the right to exploit the country’s natural resources, which required an amendment to the Philippine constitution. Other trade agreements and contingencies also tied the Philippine economy to that of the United States. In addition, the United States maintained a military presence in the Philippines. In 1947 the U.S. government secured an agreement allowing it to retain jurisdiction over numerous military installations, including Clark Air Base and Subic Bay, for a period of 99 years. In 1959 the Philippines amended the agreement, giving the United States a new 25-year lease for fewer bases.

G

1

The Hukbalahap Insurgency

In addition to economic problems, the Philippines faced growing tensions between landowners and the rural poor. During the war the Hukbalahap had become a powerful guerrilla force with strong rural-based support. The organization was associated with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) but was mostly composed of a radicalized peasantry who held many grievances against agrarian landlords. The authority of Philippine landlords had been disrupted during the wartime occupation, and after the war they tried to reimpose their authority. The leadership of the Hukbalahap, which was renamed the People’s Liberation Army in 1946, demanded the collective ownership of farmland and abolition of tenant farming. Widespread fighting broke out as the Philippine police and landlord militias battled Huk guerrillas and their supporters. In February 1948 Roxas, who had played a role in the Japanese-sponsored wartime government, resolved a raging controversy over collaboration by pardoning all those who had served the Japanese. The following month, Roxas declared the Hukbalahap to be an illegal organization and stepped up counterinsurgency measures.

Roxas died in April 1948 and was succeeded by Vice President Quirino, who then won the presidency in 1949 in an election marred by corruption. When the Huk insurgency intensified to the point of threatening the stability of the Philippine government, Quirino appointed Ramón Magsaysay secretary of national defense. Magsaysay had gained visibility as an able guerrilla leader during World War II and then served two terms in the Philippine legislature. He enthusiastically took on the mission to crush Huk resistance, using solutions such as tenancy reform to erode the rural support base of the Huks. His initiative to improve the training of the Philippine armed forces won help from the United States, which considered the Huks to be a Communist threat to the stability of the Philippines. In 1950 police forces captured the core of the Huk leadership. Huks who surrendered were offered amnesty. The insurgency effectively ended in May 1954 with the surrender of Huk leader Luis Taruc.

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2

Changing Leadership: Magsaysay to Marcos

Magsaysay was the clear winner in the 1953 presidential election, running as the Nationalist Party candidate against Quirino of the Liberal Party. Magsaysay, who came from humble origins rather than the elite, was a widely popular figure. His victory ushered in a period of enthusiasm and expectation. Magsaysay emphasized domestic reforms to improve conditions for tenant farmers and implemented small-scale public works projects in rural areas. The government purchased land on Mindanao and launched a program to encourage landless farm workers on Luzon to resettle on the southern island. The program, which was instituted in various forms in the ensuing years, led to resentment among the Muslim population on Mindanao. The influx of Christian homesteaders from the north ultimately made the Muslims a minority on Mindanao.

Magsaysay died in a plane crash in March 1957. He was succeeded by his vice president, Carlos García, who was elected president in his own right in November 1957. García imposed import controls on foreign manufactured goods, which led to a spurt of industrialization but also to a great deal of corruption. In 1961 García lost the presidency to Diosdado Macapagal, the Liberal Party candidate who campaigned on the corruption issue. Macapagal lifted the import controls and began to implement economic reforms. A 1966 amendment to the agreement on the U.S. military bases extended the deadline for U.S. withdrawal to 1991.

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3

The Marcos Regime

The 1965 elections gave the presidency to Ferdinand E. Marcos, the Senate president and Nationalist Party candidate. Rapid economic development created by the American military buildup in Vietnam and ambitious public-works projects, financed by foreign loans, brought prosperity during Marcos’s first term. He was easily reelected in 1969, making him the first Philippine president to win a second term. The Marcos government soon faced several challenges on the domestic front, however. Government debt led to lackluster economic growth, while criticism increased over the dominant U.S. economic position in the Philippines. Many Filipinos actively opposed the continued presence of the U.S. military bases and Marcos’s support for United States policy in Vietnam. In addition, by the early 1970s two separate forces were waging guerrilla war on the government: the New People’s Army (NPA), the militant wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) that included former Huks, and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a Muslim separatist movement based in the southern islands.

Meanwhile, government and opposition political leaders agreed to draft a new constitution to replace the American-authored constitution of 1935. That constitution limited the president to two terms. The delegates in charge of drafting the new constitution never finished their work, however, and the 1973 presidential elections never took place. Marcos, citing the need for national security, declared martial law on September 21, 1972. Congress was dissolved, opposition leaders arrested, and strict censorship imposed. A new constitution was promulgated in January 1973, but transitional provisions attached to it gave Marcos continued absolute power, and elections were indefinitely postponed. Marcos ruled by decree.

The United States continued providing military and economic aid to the Philippine government. The country’s continued borrowing and eventual inability to repay its foreign debts led to a severe economic recession in the mid-1980s. Meanwhile, monopolies were established in most sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, media, construction, financial services, and agriculture. Marcos and his wife, Imelda, and their closest associates and relatives controlled these monopolies through a system known as crony capitalism.

Marcos ended martial law in 1981, but he retained sweeping emergency powers. Most opposition groups boycotted the elections held in June of that year, and Marcos won another six-year term as president. In 1983 the widely popular opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated upon his return from years in exile. The political archrival of Marcos, he was one of the first opposition leaders to be arrested after the declaration of martial law.

The assassination led to mass demonstrations in Manila and revitalized the political opposition. For the first time the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church openly opposed the Marcos regime. Regular strikes and demonstrations demanded Marcos’s resignation. Legislative elections were held in 1984 and, despite a boycott by some opposition groups and widespread government vote rigging, opposition parties registered large gains. Meanwhile, a commission concluded that Aquino’s murder was the result of a military conspiracy. However, all 25 defendants were summarily acquitted in 1985.

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4

People Power Movement

In a bold attempt to bolster his power, Marcos called for a “snap,” or unscheduled, presidential election to be held in February 1986. He calculated that a fragmented opposition and a corrupted electoral process would allow him victory. Contrary to his expectations, however, the United Nationalist Democratic Front (UNIDO), the coalition of opposition parties, chose just one candidate to run against him, Corazon Aquino, the widow of Benigno Aquino. After the elections, the two monitoring bodies, one sponsored by a U.S.-based group and the other an official government commission, reported contradictory election results. Both candidates claimed victory, but the national assembly recognized Marcos as the winner.

Days later the Roman Catholic Church issued a statement claiming the election had been “a fraud unparalleled in history.” The minister of national defense, Juan Ponce Enrile, and other leading military figures, including Deputy Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos, publicly turned against Marcos and seized the two main military installations at Quezon City near Manila. Troops loyal to Marcos moved to suppress this mutiny. Jaime Cardinal Sin, the archbishop of Manila, issued the definitive blow to the Marcos regime when he called on the citizens of Manila to help prevent a Marcos victory. Throngs of civilians staged a four-day protest, confronting the loyalist troops and preventing them from taking any action. This massive protest was centered on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA). It became known as the People Power Movement, or simply EDSA.

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos fled the country in late February. The Marcoses were widely believed to have amassed huge personal wealth by plundering the Philippine economy. They also left the country with $27 billion in external debt and in a deep economic recession.

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