Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 2 - 8 November 2000 Issue No. 506
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Erap's last hurrah

By Faiza Rady

Trust a former actor to polish his performance when he ascends to the presidency. Following in the footsteps of former B-film actor and United States President Ronald Reagan, Filipino President Joseph Estrada rose to the occasion last week in Manila. Accused of having received $11.8 million in kickbacks from an illegal numbers game and provincial tobacco taxes, Estrada -- also known as Erap -- delivered an accomplished performance as he toured the country to proclaim his innocence.

Despite the road show, however, the corruption allegations stuck. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Manila last Wednesday, clamouring for the president's resignation. Among those urging Estrada to step down are luminaries of the calibre of former presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos, and Manila's Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin -- revered for having led the people's power movement against former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Besides facing accusations of milking the number rackets for all their worth, Estrada is also criticised for steering a disastrous economic course and largely contributing to the Filipino people's impoverishment. The newest bout of political turmoil has already taken a heavy toll on the country's embattled economy. The stock market took a freefall, hitting its lowest point in two years, and the peso collapsed against the US dollar -- raising fears of a domino devaluation effect on regional currencies.

A police officer in the Filipino capital Manila tries to block student protesters calling for the resignation of Philippine President Joseph Estrada (photo:AP)

Notwithstanding his colourful populist campaign platform that has swept him into the presidency in 1998, critics charge that Estrada has done little to improve the material conditions of landless peasants, who constitute the majority of the Filipino poor. In a country where 40 per cent of the active population work in agriculture, land monopoly by the rich has exacerbated dire poverty in the rural areas, particularly in the south. The top 5.5 per cent of landlords own 44 per cent of all arable land, and landlords collect between 40 and 90 per cent of what the peasants produce as rent for the land used under the share-tenancy relations act.

The exorbitant cost of share-tenancy affects millions of workers since more than half of the country's farms are either leased or rented by landless peasants. Besides being subjected to quasi-feudal conditions of share-cropping, poor farmers are also dependent on a long-standing system of virtual usury. Local distributors, who act as agents of transnational companies, control the sale of the imported seeds, fertilisers and farming equipment that have swamped the market since the early '80s. The distributors also provide the essential service of granting loans to impoverished peasants in order to afford the high-priced imports. But the loans come with a mind-boggling price tag. Interest payments average 20 per cent per month, 200 per cent per cropping season and 240 per cent per year. As a result, poverty is endemic in the rural areas. The Filipino National Economic and Development Authority estimates that rural poverty reaches 73 per cent, while the national poverty level hovers around 32 per cent.

Conditions are especially appalling on the southern island of Mindanao. Classified among the Philippine's most impoverished provinces, the island's per capita GNP is six times lower than the national average. Half of the work force is unemployed. Life expectancy is estimated at 57 years, 11 years lower than the national average of 68 years, and the island's illiteracy level of 25 per cent is the highest nationwide.

An utterly depressed and desolate region, Mindanao is home to the Moro National Liberation Front (MLNF), a militant Islamic independence movement, with permanent observer status at the Organisation of Islamic Conference. The MLNF has battled the central government since 1969 demanding self-determination. In a country where 83 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic and the economic and political elites are Christian, Muslims constitute a marginalised and impoverished minority. Denied adequate political representation and access to key public sector posts, Filipino Muslims are the poorest of the poor -- hence their nationalist militancy and separatist aspirations.

The Islamic separatist movement aspires to create a federal Islamic state that would include the southern island strips of Mindanao, Basilan, Jolo, Tawi-Tawi, and the island of Palawan to the northwest -- 40 per cent of the country's territory. But when the MLNF signed a peace accord with former President Fidel Ramos' regime in 1996 and promises evaporated in thin air, angry splinter groups picked up the struggle for independence -- most notably the small but militant Abu Sayyaf group. Allegedly supported by the Afghani Taliban, Abu Sayyaf gained worldwide notoriety last spring when it captured and held 21 foreign hostages. A hefty ransom request, followed by months of negotiation eventually led to all the hostages being freed.

Abu Sayyaf indicated that the ransom money was needed to finance its armed struggle. The French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique quoted Global, an Abu Sayyaf militant, as saying that the group is seeking a separate state "where we could live according to our aspirations, free from the tutelage of a government that refuses our right to difference."

As the struggle for self-determination intensified over the past two years, the Filipino president could have, at best, resolved the conflict, and, at worst, diffused the country's explosive social fragmentation. As Estrada's predecessor, Ramos handed Estrada the 1996 peace accord on a silver platter. The accord stipulated Mindanao's autonomous status and committed the central government to developing the region's economy. Never one to make good on his promises, Ramos dragged his feet and shelved development plans to finance more urgent matters on his agenda -- such as depleting the state coffer's to pay interests on the country's IMF debt and finance the military.

Armed with a proclaimed populist position and World Bank (WB) development loans of some $10.3 billion, Estrada should have been in the position to initiate credible development projects in the south. Instead, he too dallied around, opting to develop his own bank account and invest in a real estate empire of his making. Meanwhile, Japanese investors, who were attracted by the cheap labour pool and the whiff of profits, started to develop the region's infrastructure. But they came too late. In the wake of last spring's hostage crisis and the ensuing international clamour, Estrada dispatched his army to Mindanao. Besieged by the military, the guerrillas fought back and the island became a battle field. One million people were displaced, and all projects came to a halt.

Back in Manila , Estrada's unruffled performance even surpasses his heyday on the silver screen. Outdoing himself in his stock role of virtuous lone hero battling the establishment for the sake of the downtrodden, Estrada stubbornly stuck to his script. On his fourth visit to a Manila shantytown in two weeks, Estrada posed for the cameras as he embraced ragged, snooty-nosed children and vociferously proclaimed his innocence, along with his solidarity with the poor. Blasting the rich and ranting against big business, the former actor reclaimed his cinematic base.

"These people never thought of anybody but their business, their own interests. They don't care about you," recited Estrada. Despite the heartfelt pathos, the president's audience remained impassive. In the words of Rafael Mariano, chairman of the left-wing Bayan group: "The real Erap is the one that owns several mansions, who spoils his mistresses and cronies using the people's money."

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