6348 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March .~4, 1980 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS THE EROSION OF A Second, by allowing opposition parties and that while about 56 percent of Filipino DICTATORSHIP individuals to campaign~though, under the · households were below the poverty line in most disadvantageous conditions-and even. 1971, at least 68 percent of them are now in .EY H. (PETE) STARK allowing a few to win, Marcos took another that category. The already hard-pressed HON. FORTN step in his grand strategy of roping dissi- Filipino was squeezed even harder by an in­ OF CALIFORNIA dent members of the elite into participating flation r;~ote that hit the 25 percent mark in· IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESQTATIVES in a restricted political system in which 1979-the highest in Southeast Asia, accord­ they would have the opportunity to seize ing to the International Monetary Fund. Monday, March 24, 1980 the trappings of power . but not its sub- The iron noose of neo-colonial dependen­ • Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I contin~ stance. · cy has tightened around the Philippine ue to watch event.c; in the Philippines The strategy was, to some degree, success­ economy. The most sensitive indicator of ex­ closely. There the Marcos regime is ful. Yieldin_g .to its. traditional weakness of ternal economic relations, the balance-of­ . ' placing individual mterests and short-term trade· deficit, jumped from US$1.3 billion in stlll wrestling with the problems of a _ gains in command, the .Philippine elite op- 1978 to US$1.6 billion in 1979, as the value declining economy, poverty, and politi- position fragmented, with most of its mem­ of the Philippines' agricultural and light-in­ cal unrest. bers pa,rticipating in the exercise. While dustrial exports failed to keep pace with the Martial law, now in its eighth year, some groupings, like the old Liberal Party skyrocketing. prices of its hard industrial has only helped mask temporarily . and the Laban Party, formally staged a boy­ and oil imports. Scrambling to pay off old some of the grave problems facing the cott, adherents of these formations took debts, cover the trade deficit, and finance Philippines. .part in the charade "as individuals." In this new investment, the regime pushed the · Unfortunately the 1979 military sense, Marcos has once again proven him- counqoy into even deeper.debt with external . • self to be the master of his elite rivals: he borrowing which raised the foreign debt bas.es accord between Marcos and the accurately anticipated that given a fifth of a from US$7 .8 billion in late 1978 to a ma.Ssive Umted States has led to an increased chance they would fight over crumbs. US$9.6 billion at the beginning of this year. U.S. military commitment to Marcos The third major explanation for the elec- Multinational ·corporations, for whose and this causes me great concern. torial ritual is revealed in its coinciding with benefit Marcos, with IMF-World . Bank In a recent-March 7-13-edition of the beginning of the u.s Congress's annual advice, has fashioned a labor-repressive poA the Southeast Asia Record, Walden deliberations of foreign assistance. Marc<?s is litical economy, are beginning to lose confi­ Bello and Steve Wake looked at "The what Filipinos call a segurista, or one who dence, despite the fact that Philippine Erosion of a Dictatorship." I read takes no chances: he want& to make doubly wages are now one-third to one-half those in their article with interest and unhap- sure that nothing anc;l no one in Congress South Korea and Hong Kong. More than . stands in the way of the massive aid pack- US$37 million on investment capital left th& pi.I~ess. ~re we agam enmeshed in a re- age the carter administration has promised Philippines in the first six months of 1979, latlonshiP in the Third World that him this year. five times more than in the first half of cannot be justified in political, eco­ 1978. nomic, or military terms and one that ELECTIONS, THE BASES, AND Am In spite of the seal of being a '"good credit is immora.l at the same time? I think Rather than projecting the achievement risk" affixed. to the regime by the World the answer is "Yes," and Bello and of another milestone on the road to normal­ Bank and the IMF, the international pri­ ization, however, the embarrassing elections vate banks are becoming quite Jittery over Wake present evidence to support this have only succeeded in presentirtg Jimmy view. the burgeoning external debt. Both multi­ .Carter with another headache in justifying national institutions and the private ~anks, The article follows: his request to . offer Marcos more than however, have no choice but to grant [From the Southeast Asia Record] US$75 million in military assistance. The Marcos more loans, since refusal could THE EROSION OF A DICTATORSHIP problem is especially critical because· it result in a Philippine default on external <By Walden Bello and Steve Wake> comes at a time that the two u.s. bases in debt which would have major repercussions the Philippines, Clark . Air Force Base and on the international financial system. The In the words of Manila's Cardinal Jaime Subic Naval Base, are being recast as the · prospect of a government falling and the Sin, the event was a "selection" rather than "logistical hub" for military deployment in emergence of a new regime that might then · an election. What the regime had billed as the Indian Ocean. The role was highlighted repudiate the country's debts is a nightmare the first local elections since 1971 resulted by two well-publicized excursions to the that keeps the credit lines open. Marcos,. the in President Marcos's New Society Move­ Indian Ocean by two Subic-based aircraft IMF, anci' the international financial com­ ment <KBL) sweeping 69 out of 73 governo~­ carriers, the Kitty Hawk and Constellation. munity, in short, are caught in an upward ships and over ·1,450 of 1,560 mayoral races by Subic'e serving as the jumpilig-off point spiral of debt-the "debt trap"-from which on January 30. The winners included Mar­ and training center for an 1800-man Marine norie dares extricate itself. It IS in thls con­ cos's son, "Bongbong," who will 'reign as Task Force now headed for the Arabian Sea. text that the recent decision of the IMF and Ilocos Norte's vice governor in · absentia The Philippines, some suspect, is in fact the World Bank to allow the ;regime to while attending college in the United States. being groomed for something bigger: to borrow up to US$1.2 billion more in 1980 be­ Imelda Marcos, always accorded special serve as the Western Pacific spriilgboard for comes understandable. treatment. saw her governorship of Metro­ the 100,000-man Rapid Deployment Forces Manila exempted from the electoral fray. <RDF> currently being stitched togetlier by · THE GROWING RESISTANCE The event that Richard Holbrooke, assist­ the Pentagon. Testifying before Congress The mounting political frustration and, ant secretary of state for East Asia, de­ on Feb. 21, Holbrooke assertec;t that "the even more critical, the economic crisis can scribed as a step in the direction of "in­ bases are central to our strategic posture in only redound to the benefit of an armed re­ creased political freedom" was marked by the Indian Ocean," and warned that the siStance movement· that . survived the the terrorism and fraud characteristic of Carter administration was "extremely op­ · hammer blows of the early years of martial pre-martial law elections, with one differ­ posed" to any effort to reduce this year's law and emerged. in the last three years as ence: the violations were lopsidedly perpe­ aid request for Marcos since this would clearly the most deadly foe of the dictator­ trated by one side. 500 te~hers in San Fer­ upset the delicate .security understandings ship. As the elite opposition fragmented, nando, Pampanga, for instance, were held at arrJved at since the Bases Agreement went with the majority succumbing to Marco's gunpoint by troops until they signed falsi­ into effect in January 1979. electoral baits and a few hatching wild, fied election returns. Complaints of elector- amateurish schemes of urban terrorism, the al rigging had become so numerous by Feb. THE ECONoMY: INTO THE VORTEX New People's Army <NPA> opened up a 11 that Marcos was forced to admit that his As the debate on Marcos continues in U.S. multi-proriged effort to upgrade the level of party had cheated. foreign policy circles-. so does his descent. the 1!-rnied struggle to a "higher phase of Why did Marcos stage the ritual? Observ- Th~ economy has entered its most stormy the strategic defensive.'" · ers present three major reaons. period since martial law was imposed in In the plains of Eastern Mindanao, bold First, the election was intended to legiti- · 1972. World Bank ·statistics reveal that in expansion campaigns have rooted the NPA mize the control over local offices by Metro-Manila, the most prosperous part of in an area where it had no presence as late Marcos loyalists among the regional artd the country, unskilled workers saw their as 1975. In the highlands of Montanosa, local elites, many of whom had been in- real wages decline by over 30 percent be­ among the lgorot tribe-folk, the NPA bas stalled by decree over the last seven years. tween 1972 and 1978. Other studies show forged a militant resistance movement that · e This .. bullet" symbol ident~fies statements or insertions which are not spoken by the Member on the floor • .