Marcos' Woes

Reagan cancels his stopover

The specter of the bruised and bloody body of Benigno Aquino would not go away. At every turn last week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos appeared to be moving through a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions welling up from the assassination of his chief political rival. President Reagan canceled his plans to visit the Philippines, and the estranged Philippine business community was only reluctantly taking steps to help Marcos out of a gathering financial crisis, which last week led to a 21.4% devaluation of the peso. From a former U.S. Ambassador to both Iran and the Philippines, meanwhile, came a blunt warning that the struggle to replace Marcos could become a replay of the Iranian revolution.

Reagan's decision to bypass the Philippines, along with Indonesia and Thailand, on his trip to Japan and South Korea due to begin Nov. 10 was a clear indication that the Administration would like to keep its distance. The White House cited a "particularly demanding" legislative calendar, but few officials were pretending that congressional concerns were the real reason: though most Filipinos are still pro-American, many of them were opposed to the trip on the grounds that it would show U.S. support for Marcos at a critical time. There was also a personal factor: Nancy Reagan firmly opposed the journey because of fears for her husband's safety. For Marcos and his influential wife Imelda, the cancellation came as a blow, but most Filipinos were clearly delighted with Reagan's decision.

In a syndicated newspaper article, William H. Sullivan, who was U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines from 1973 to 1977 and then Ambassador to Iran until April 1979, wrote of "the parallels between the American dilemma in Manila today and our problems in Tehran in 1978." He warned of the "dangerous similarity" of U.S. ties in each case to "an authoritarian leader without a popular base of support." In an interview with TIME, Sullivan said that the U.S. should encourage Marcos "to make an amicable deal with the moderate opposition in order to restore democracy, neutralize the small but growing ranks of the radicals, and avert civil war."

Marcos spent much of last week soliciting support from reluctant Philippine businessmen, at one point reportedly threatening, "If things get messy around here and there is hyperinflation, you might see happening here what happened in Mexico and Argentina--nationalization of the banks." He did agree to add independent members to the six-man, pro-government commission investigating Aquino's murder. But from his opponents the message remained the same, that Marcos should resign. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.