The Philippines: A Survey for 1976

Abstract

After eleven years in office, President Marcos appears to have consolidated his political power in the country. Since September 1972 he has instituted a number of political, economic and social measures that are meant to check the abuses and ills of the Old Society and to establish the foundations of a new society dedicated to the principles of freedom and equality. In the government's conduct of foreign policy, there has been greater emphasis on the need to chart an independent (in particular, of the United States) and nonaligned course, but the difficulties inherent in such an effort are obvious for a country that has for so long been so closely associated with the United States militarily and economically. Government forces have suc ceeded in crippling the strength of the New People's Army, some of whose top leaders were captured during the year. In the Southern Philippines the government is in the process of ending its war with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). Political opposition to the r?gime remains, however, and this has proved somewhat unsettling for the government if its responses to critics are any indication. The government recognizes, however, that the real threat to the ruling ?lite will come from the government's own inability and failure to improve the economic well-being of the population.