Smiling No More

Last month President Ferdinand Marcos lifted his martial law restrictions on freedom of speech and the press to permit a grace period of open debate on a new constitution for his troubled country. Last week he suddenly banned further free discussion and indefinitely postponed the plebiscite, which had originally been scheduled for Jan. 15. Instead, the Philippine President said, people would only be able to express their views on the new constitution at a series of government-organized citizens' assemblies.

Marcos announced the tough new action in a report on the first 100 days of martial law. Unscrupulous politicians, he said, had abused the removal of restrictions on free speech "to resume influence peddling" and foment rumor, anxiety and disorder. He declared that rumormongering would henceforth be considered a subversive crime.

There was little doubt that the debate had been somewhat freer than Marcos had intended. The grace period of debate was his response to critics who argued that a referendum held under the strict regulations of martial law could hardly provide a true index of popular attitudes. Opponents of the new charter, which provides for a parliamentary form of government, fielded a range of articulate spokesmen, among them Jesuit priests and members of Marcos' own party. They argued--convincingly, it would seem--that the constitution would give Marcos dictatorial powers for as long as he wanted them (it sets no date by which he must convene the Parliament, for example).

Backing away from the plebiscite, Marcos said that he had tried to give the Philippines a "smiling martial law." But his regime has grown increasingly uneasy in recent weeks. Last month Imelda Marcos, the President's wife, was injured by a knife-wielding assailant at a public gathering. Communal violence between Moslems and Christians in Mindanao and Sulu has also flared up (TIME, Jan. 15).

As the hastily organized neighborhood forums got under way, information Secretary Francisco Tatad indicated that if the response to the new constitution was favorable. Marcos would accept it as a "people's mandate" and the constitution could be considered ratified. The assemblies will also be asked whether Congress should convene as usual next week--a move that Congressmen favor but Marcos has opposed.

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