With Aquino dead, the chances for post-Marcos stability grow dim
The journey had begun in the hope of political reconciliation. It ended in a puddle of blood on the tarmac at Manila International Airport.
Yet there was nothing quixotic in the final odyssey of Philippine Opposition Leader Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino Jr. He may even have known that his murder (if such were to be his fate) would galvanize his countrymen. And so it did. Hour after hour, for three long days last week, the mourners, eventually 300,000 in all, filed past his glass-covered coffin at the Aquino family home in a suburb of Manila. What they saw was not pretty. Aquino's body had been embalmed, but the marks of the assassin's bullet were still horribly visible on his face. When the body was moved to a nearby church, where it would lie in state until Saturday, some 30,000 people joined the procession, chanting, "Ninoy! Ninoy!" and, in scattered instances, "Himagsikan!" (Revolution!).
Suddenly, violently, Philippine politics had entered an uncertain new era, and the 17-year-old regime of President Ferdinand Marcos seemed vulnerable. Many in Manila have believed for some time that Marcos, 65, is chronically ill—a kidney ailment and lupus erythematosus are the most common rumors—and a peaceful succession is by no means certain. Marcos' authoritarian rule, coupled with a deepening economic crisis, has fostered widespread apathy and cynicism, and driven many young Filipinos into the country's small but increasingly troublesome Communist movement. That has weakened the nonviolent center and raised the chances of a post-Marcos military takeover. To many analysts, Aquino was the only opposition figure capable of uniting a broad spectrum of political opinion and, perhaps, engineering a peaceful return to democracy. That, in fact, was his purpose in returning home after three years of exile in the
U.S. His assassination has created a serious leadership vacuum in the opposition and dimmed the chances for stability after Marcos.
The prospect of turmoil in the strategic islands sent a shudder through Washington. After damning the "cowardly and despicable" assassination, the Reagan Administration called for a thorough and independent investigation of the killing. Even officials who knew and liked Aquino took pains to point out that nothing must jeopardize the special relationship between the two countries and, specifically, the vital U.S. bases at Clark Field and Subic Bay in the Philippines. The problem was doubly sensitive because Reagan is scheduled to visit Manila in November as part of a five-nation Asian tour. Despite calls for its cancellation by individuals including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, some Congressmen and Filipino Americans, the visit was still on at week's end. But American officials made no secret of their anxiety over the future of the Philippines. For it was the charismatic Aquino who had personified U.S. hopes that a post-Marcos government could be popular and pro-American.