I SPECIAL ISSUE I U.P. ASSESSMENT PROJECT ON THE STATE OF THE NATION THE FAILED DECEMBER COUP View from the UP Community BELINDA A. AQUINO Editor University a/the Philippines Office of the Vice President for Public Affairs in co,yunction with Center for Integrative and Development Studies Diliman, Quezon City Maren 1990 About the Center For Integretlve end Development Studies The UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP-CIOS) was established In September t 985 to promote Interdisciplinary and Integrative studies on crttical topics bearing on development policies Contents and Issues. These studies should address slgnfficant concems 01 Philippine society In that they deal wnh problems whose under­ t standing and resolution have Important Implications for the well-being 01 major sectors 01 the country. The Center seeks to initiate and support broad research topics that 'ntroductlon call for Innovative methodological approaches and muni-disclplinary collaboration. While public policy questions are the primary concern of lIP-CIOS, n also encourages basic research that Is neededtoInform Intelligently the direction and substance of policy-oriented research. T~e Failed Coup and the Politics of 1 I Violence The Center functions under the Office of the UP President, currently Prof. Jose V. Abueva. For further Information, contact: Dr. C.rolln. O. By Belinda A. Aquino, Vice-Presidenf for Public A!fal~s and Pr?fes~orofPolitical Science and Hem.ndez, Director, UP-CIDS, PeED Hoefer, UP Dlllmen, Quezon City. Tel. N~. I PUblic Admmlstratlon, University ofthe 17-3540, 99-9691 and 97-6061 I~I 518. I Phlllppmes 1 AbDut the National Assessment Project ,! Part ONE The National Assessment Project was launched underUP President I, Jose V. Abueva's initiative in late 1988 to inquire into the current state Of the nation using eight vnal areas cf Philippine society. It seeks to The December Coup Attempt and the involve various faculty on all campuses to contribute, through re­ State of the Nation 6 search efforts, to the full and authoritative assessment of our nation: By J?se If. Abueva, PreSident andProfessor of ns people, their well-being, welfare, values, resources and Instnu­ j PoMlcal SCIence and PUblic Administration tions. UniverSIty ofthe Philippines Administered by UP-CIOS, the Project hopes to identify weak­ nesses and strengths in policies, programs and other measures that are currently being epplied to the resolution of our national problems. Part Two It is an ambitious undertaking, but given the extensive resources at the University communny, n should be possible to generate well­ thought out crniques and suggestions regarding the State 01 the A Time for Hard Decisions Nation. By the School ofEconomics, UP Diliman 18 For further information, contact UP-CIOS at the above address and •••• 0, •••••••••••••••••••••••••• . number Emergency Powers for the President 29 .. ~~.~e.. COllege ofLaw, UP Diliman ......................... .,. •..•.••.....•..•..••.....•.....••..• A Historic OPportunity to Renew Democracy and Society 34 By th,!.SChoofofLabor andfndustriaf Relation UP Dillman s .................. ., . .. Self-Regulation not Repress/on By the.COllege of Mass Communication 40 UP Dillman •, 1 I INTRODUCTION THE FAILED COUP AND THE POLITICS OF VIOLENCE By Belinda A. Aquino Vice President Cor Public Affairs and ProCessor oC Political Science and Public Administration I University oethe Philippines t is distasteful, Wnotfrightening, but whether we like tt ornot, ! I the coup d'etat (kudeta) has become part of the contem­ porary Filipino polttical landscape. The fact that we have quickly incorporated the term kudeta Into our political vocabulary is a sign that tts reamy is established in ourday-to· day lives. At the very least, tt has become a household word in Philippine polttics, something we have to live wtth. We are still feeling the effects a the coup attempt last December, the bloodiest so far since the AqUino governmant assumed power In February 1986, following the EDSA revolu­ tion. Years later, when we look back at the presidency of Cory AqUino, we will readily see that tts distinguishing characteristic was fts attempts to weather the polttics of violence spawned by the overweening ambttions of the Reform the Armed For­ ces Movement (RAM) leaders and their cohorts to rule Philip­ pine society. There are less than 800 days left to AqUino's term and the general wish at least is that she last until the scheduled presidential election in 1992. In a sense, this isa sad commen­ tary on a presidency that was gloriously Installed bya "people power" revolution not so long ago. We had such high, albeft unrealistic, hopes for and expectations from tt. Perhaps that was what was wrong all this time. Things were not going to change simply because we had overthrown the dictator. Now we see a popular presidency ending up In a lame-duck posi­ tion trying to hang on until tts legftlmate expiration in 1992. The persistent threats to fts axlstence have taken their toll. They have reduced the energies of the current leadership to sheer polttical survival. ft started wfth a bang, as the expression goes. let us hope ft does not end up in tears as well as In blood. The 1989 kudeta has been the subject of profuse and profound commentaries by media, academics, buslnass 2 3 groups, religious circles, International observers, and ordi­ east Central Europe, eastern Europe with a small 'e,' and nary people. And as usual, In our own Filipino wey, we have above ell, Individual peoples, nations, and states." ("Eastern accepted the term as part of our everyday IWe, making Rthe Europe: The Year of Truth," The New York Review of Books, tRle of sklls and even associating RwRh the occasion of love, February 15, 1990, p. 17). e.g., "Valentine coup." We have become "Kudeta Country." There is something in the Filipino polllical cuRure that con­ The remarkable thing about all these revolutions on the verts serious events of a IWe-and-death nature, such as assas­ other side of the globe was the absence ofviolence, except in sinations, kudetas, Insurgencies, etc., into material tor humor the case of Romania. Instead, the young demonstrators In and mundane conversations. And as we wrRe this, we are East Berlin and Prague, for instance, laid candles on the certain there are already 35 jOkes that have been coined by ground In front·of the police, reminiscent of our own EDSA pundlls related to the last kudeta. revolution In 1986. But on a more serious level, the kudeta last December really But the 1989 kudeta In the Philippines was something else. jolted ordinary cRizens off their seats. nwas not so much that It was the anti-thesis of the non-violent revolutions in Eastern II happened. Previous coup attempts, particularly the one In Europe toward democratic rule. In Manila, the conspirators August 1987, had somehow' created the sense that Rwould were taking the 0pposlle tack of storming Malacanang on a happen again. It was the 1989 attempt's firepower and sophis­ prelude to a poillics of violence. These self-styled RAM retor­ tication that brought home liS "stark reality" to the ordinary mists are actually frustrated men intent on seizing power. Their Filipino. And while the 1987 putsch took only a matter of hours frustrations have accumulated since the waning days of the to quell, II was taking days, in fact a full week, for the govern­ Marcos regime when "people power" pre-empted their ment 10 contain the 1989 one. Were II not for tho timely original prospect of bringing down the dictator themselves. "persuasion flights" (read: intervention) of the U.S. F-4 phan­ They were robbed of their supreme moment of glory. They tom jets from Clark Airbase on the Malacanang airspace, we had to try again, even under conditions of peace and might be liVing under the aegis of a military junta today. This democracy. They have gone so far as to sound revolutionary is another issue altogether and we will not really delve into this by calling themselves Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang in this brief introduction. Makabansa (Revolutionary Nationalist Alliance) and Soldiers of the Filipino People (SFP). Thus what comes out of all these is the increasing ability of coup plotters to mount destabilization offensives wilh Im­ To be critical of the RAM for their misbegotten dreams and punity and the diminishing capacity on the pM of the civilian violent ambitions is not to endorse the Aquino government leadership to pre-empt or prevent them. This is a damaging without reservation. TLe latter too must be faulted for not impression that causes ordinary citizens to lose fallh in the showing greater decisiveness in confronting the basic ablity of their leaders to protect them in times of grave crisis. problems of the country. By lis lapses and ineptness, rt has There is already so much lawlessness in other sectors to exacerbated the conditions which promote structural violence begin wllh. The integrity ofthe civilian poillicalleadership Is at I in the society. The drift, disarray and corruption in the civilian stake in such slluations. Its vulnorability to the ever-shifting leadership always Invlle attempts to grab power by organized currents of polhical Change is not something that re-assures atternatlve groups. The concept of "civilian supremacy" Is and strengthens the Filipino body poillic. f meaningless wllhout substance and integrity. all a deeper level, what does II all mean-what has become The ongoing debate on the latest kUdeta has not exhausted of Philippine politics? It is a season of seismic upheavals, of all the answers to and explanations of the current Philippine polltical change, violent and otherwise, of turning points In crisis. Its ramifications are still unfolding. And lis complexllies contemporary history. At the time that we were having our are being unravelled by a presidential commission.