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Filipino politics tends to lurch from one crisis to another, writes Vincent McKee. Allegations of ballot fraud, corruption, cover-up and the murder of 623 dis¬sidents by pro-government death squads over five years might have sealed the fate of many political leaders elsewhere. Yet President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo seems to have ridden out this latest crisis scathed but intact. Mrs Ar¬royo — a conservative who took power in Jan¬uary 2001 —has for years skillfully wooed church leaders. Now, without the backing of the late Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila, and with scep¬tical ecclesiastics like Cebu’s Cardinal Ricar¬do Vidal attacking her record, a question mark hangs over Mrs Arroyo’s continuing position.
To supporters in the Filipino middle class¬es, the President is a wily and effective figure who restored foreign confidence after the tur¬bulent presidency of Joseph Estrada (1998-2001). To opponents — including most members of Manila’s poorer classes and many radical bishops - Mrs Arroyo is a corrupt ma¬nipulator who rigged the 2004 presidential poll, unleashed death squads on dissidents and allowed foreign mining companies to quarry indigenous people’s land for profit.
The national economy is struggling. Notwithstanding government claims of a boost in jobs and a 3.2 per cent annual growth rate, unemployment stands at 18 per cent, while an estimated 40 per cent of the population live on remittances from the eight million Fil¬ipinos working abroad. Some 50 per cent of the population exists on or below the poverty level. Mrs Arroyo’s record plainly leaves her politically vulnerable.
Among charges levelled at the President by recent impeachment petitioners — who included Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez — were the abuse of office and repression of legitimate dissent. However, it is the pro-gov¬ernment “hit squads” that have raised greatest international concern. With 623 as¬sorted peasant leaders, trade unionists, left-wing and human rights activists, along with 45 journalists, having lost their lives since 2001, small wonder that the Catholic bish¬ops have joined a chorus of critics in de¬manding an end to extrajudicial abductions and murders. The most prominent current case is that of the radical Protestant minis¬ter Eleuterio Revollido who disappeared last month just days after being denounced by Mrs Arroyo’s justice minister as a”leftist-front operator”.
The Philippines Catholic Church is in no sense radical or liberation-theology-driven. In relatively recent times, it was a conservative institution with close links to the Government.
However, the initiative has passed to a so¬cially conscious school of bishops led by Car¬dinal Ricardo Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu. The 75-year-old cardinal champions church in¬dependence and believes that recent displays of church solidarity with ordinary Filipinos protesting against injustice show the Church in “positive tandem with the people whom it is called to serve”. He has been a consis¬tent voice
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