New attention for an old ally
Jet fighters screamed overhead in tight formation, native horns blasted, and a 1,000-voice choir boomed out Handel's Hallelujah Chorus ("And he shall reign for ever and ever") with no apparent sense of irony. Yet perhaps the greatest source of satisfaction for President Ferdinand Marcos last week as he celebrated his third inauguration in 16 years was that standing on the rostrum with Marcos and his wife Imelda was U.S. Vice President George Bush. After years of friction with Jimmy Carter over human rights, the Marcos regime was in favor again with a U.S. President. Indeed, Bush went well beyond expressing the normal diplomatic niceties, even for an old ally, when he said at a luncheon: "We love your adherence to democratic principles and to the democratic process, and we will not leave you in isolation."
Bush's bouquets to Marcos reflected the strategic importance the U.S. attaches to the Philippines at a time of growing tension with the Soviet Union. Marcos had just won a new six-year term in an election so controlled that every serious opposition candidate refused to run against him. But Clark Air Base, about 60 miles outside Manila, and the big naval facility at Subic Bay constitute the only permanent, secure U.S. military real estate between Japan and the Indian Ocean. As a U.S. official in Manila put it, Bush's visit "fits into the overall approach of the Reagan Administration that, if we're going to have allies, we're going to treat them as allies." To that end, Bush also noted before returning home that the Administration is "looking forward" to an official visit by Marcos to the U.S., something long sought by the Philippine President.
Last week's bonhomie upset the leaders of the Philippines' moderate, basically pro-American opposition. Two of them Benigno Aquino and Raul Manglapus sent a telegram to Bush from their American exile, appealing to him not to identify the U.S. with the present government, Marcos, on the other hand, pointedly and publicly reminded Bush of the Philipines' continuing friendship, "even after Viet Nam, when it was almost impossible to say one was for the U.S."
The only jarring note in Marcos' week of triumph, which was also attended by high officials from China and the Soviet Union, was his continuing feud with the Roman Catholic Church, whose leaders he had angered during the election campaign. Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila, issued a statement assailing "frontal attacks" on the church and accusing the state of "making a mockery of the constitutional provision regarding freedom of religion." But Sin, in many ways a traditionalist, does not seek a confrontation with Marcos. "We are really helping him," Sin insists, "but he sometimes seems not to realize this." After his rapprochement with Washington, Marcos may decide he can do without such help.