The Philippines: In the Eye of the Political Storm

Abstract

In 2006 the Philippines passed through another year of severe political weather, with forms of instability accompanying attempts, whether by constitutional or unconstitutional means, to remove the embattled President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from office. Meanwhile multiple insurgencies raged within the country. The President's legitimacy has been in question since she secured a six-year term in a controversial presidential election in May 2004. Her popularity remained at record lows since the emergence in early 2005 of some evidence of alleged intent to cheat in order to defeat her opponent, actor Fernando Poe Jr. The country's political stage hosted an appearance of almost all the political strategies characteristic of the weak post-1986 Philippine state: attempts at presidential impeachment and military coup, declaration of state of emergency, political violence, failed constitutional reform, and continuation of the communist and Muslim insurgencies. In many ways, Philippine politics appears to have become frozen in its perpetual state of varying levels of crisis. Political instability is becoming expected and almost institutionalized. The country's division between the supporters of constitutional reform and those who wish to preserve the existing system that mirrors the government of its former American colonial power, indicate an increasing lack of legitimacy of the political system itself. At the same time, the political drama has unfolded against the background of solid gains in the country's economic performance and clear indications that the looming fiscal crisis, which appeared in 2004, has definitely been warded off. In a situation long typical of the archipelago, the satisfying economic figures are seen by many observers as being inconsistent with the failure of the government to alleviate the problems of poverty and social justice. In other words, economic growth has very little trickle-down effect. The strong economic performance was