Bidding a disparaging farewell to democracy, President Ferdinand Marcos last week formally ended the Philippines' 26-year-old American-style government. In a nationwide broadcast, Marcos announced a new constitution that gives him dictatorial powers for as long as he chooses and declared, "It is easier perhaps and more comfortable to look back to the solace of a familiar and mediocre past. But the times are too grave and the stakes too high for us to permit the customary concessions to traditional democratic processes."
That Marcos found democracy troublesome had, of course, been evident for some time. Since imposing martial law throughout the...
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