Ferdinand Marcos as a Leader: Philippine Politics Over Time

Introduction

The book “A Changeless Land,” written by David Timberman, delves into the intricate political landscape of the Philippines. David Timberman, a political analyst and development practitioner with extensive experience in Southeast and South Asia, offers a comprehensive exploration of political and government challenges. Having served as a Visiting Professor of Political Science at De La Salle University in Manila, Timberman's expertise is evident in his focus on Southeast Asian politics and policy reform in the Philippines. Among his works, 'A Changeless Land' stands out as a significant contribution to understanding the dynamics of Philippine governance and society, shedding light on the role of Ferdinand Marcos as a leader in shaping the nation's trajectory.

Exploring Philippine Politics in A Changeless Land

This book tackles about Philippine politics and its elements of continuity and change over the past century. It includes the early 1960’s to 1988 and involves the three distinct phases: the decline of the “traditional” elite Democracy, the imposing of martial law and constitutional authoritarianism during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, and most importantly, the restoration of true democracy under Corazon Aquino’s regime. By reading the contents of this book, you would be able to understand the factor that causes continuity and change in the past Philippine context. This book attempts to provide a portion for understanding the past political developments and events that happened in the Philippines.

In chapters 1-3 the author explained the characteristics of the traditional pre-martial law government, politics, and socio-economic changes that were the factors of imposing the Martial law. The author believed that the traditional elite ruled democracy was not really flawed or defective. For him, democracy is a failure because of the inability of the citizens to truly commit to the democratic systems within the traditional politics and economic leadership. In chapters 4-5 the author discussed about the success and downfall of the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. It tackles on how the Marcos administration is significant for the changes he brought to the nature of politics and government of the Philippines. He discussed Marcos with significant details because of his important influence in politics, governance and economy during Aquinos administration and most especially in our time today. Lastly, in chapters 6-11, the author characterized how Corazon Aquino shifted from Marcos Authoritarian regime back to a democratic government. He also showed the underlying factors that cause the restoration of a democratic government that is very similar to the pre-martial law period or the Traditional democratic government.

Impact of Ferdinand Marcos as a Leader

A few years ago, there have been major and important changes in the Philippine politics and society. When Marcos has been inaugurated as president, Ferdinand Marcos rose to power by putting pressure to keep the society afloat. He promoted the country to move towards change and made the country prosperous. However, despite the positive outcome, we all know that there was been a numerous acts of violence and injustice beyond all that. The Declaration of Martial law by Ferdinand Marcos, in 1972 marked a great history in the Philippines. He also claimed that his authoritarian regime was carrying out a revolution in order to create a new society. The collapse of the Marcos administration in February 1986 was because of a sustained campaign of civil resistance against Marcos regime of violence and alleged electoral fraud. This was the Peoples Power Revolution headed by Corazon Aquino, the widow of the assassinated Benigno Aquino jr. by the Marcos regime which triggered the said revolt. The nonviolent revolution led to the imposition of Ferdinand Marcos, the end of his 21-year presidential rule, and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. With Cory Aquino elected as President after the fall of Marcos regime, resulted the restoration of democracy and change after fourteen years of dictatorship. With little or no knowledge at all, she had been able to run the country after Marcos.

However, with these changes that have occurred, it is still undeniably sad that the Philippine society is characterized with poverty, injustice and inequality particularly on the governments way on governing the people. We may be democratic in papers, but we are not democratic in practice. While the country is democratic, it had failed in developing it in a practical form that can address the country’s social problems. According to Timberman, it was not a failure of democracy, but the failure of the people to commit themselves in it. There is also a lengthy history of Philippine politics, society and economic matters that are being dominated by a group of small conservative elite families. Also, predictable charges of electoral fraud, corruption, vote buying, nepotism, and incompetence in the Philippine government.

Moreover, with the series of events that had happened in the history of the Philippines, why does it has done little change or nothing at all? Why the Philippine society does has a long standing of poverty and injustice and has not caused any radical change? The effects of change and the Filipino's attitude towards it, is mixed. The continuity and change of Philippines is the transition of its government from an authoritarian to a democratic type of government. The transition from authoritarian government to a democratic one was a global government, especially in Asia. However, in the Philippine context, it is different from others because it is the society that attempted to return its government to a democratic one. Cory Aquino’s administration of political reform was assumed that the restoration of a democratic government was desirable and possible.

Challenges in Philippine Democracy and Society

The author also discussed about political culture that may explain the attitude of the Filipinos towards politics. In order to understand further the Philippine society and its culture, we must also recognise their political culture. Political culture is the society’s views and opinions to politics, how they respond to their government and its effects on their society. Society and Culture may evolve overtime. According to Lucian Pye 'Culture is unquestionably significant, in some undetermined degree, in shaping the aspirations and fears, the preferences and prejudices, the priorities and expectations of a people as they confront the challenges of social and political change'. Culture is embedded in our history through the years of colonialism yet we fail to recognise it. Political culture according to Almond and Powell 'is the pattern of individual attitudes and orientations toward politics among the members of a political system. It is the subjective realm which underlies and gives meaning to political actions'. Identifying the political culture of a nation may help us explain the Philippine society’s political behaviour. After the fall of the Marcos administration, the society has great issues of mistrust on the government. This is because of the questionable actions of Marcos during his term. This is why the administration of Corazon Aquino have dealt with great problems especially on how to gain the trust of the Filipinos at that time.

When we take closer look at the democratic government of the Philippines before martial law, it is really questionable especially because of the effectiveness and equity of the traditional elite democracy which was ruled by the ruling elite families. This was after the Philippines gained independence from the colonization of the Americans, the elite took over the challenge of proving itself worthy of governing the Filipino people. Families with enormous investments family shares in land and industry often control political and economic power. This group of elite families still has powers until to this day. There have been different elite families that have emerged throughout Philippine History and some argue that the country history can be seen as a competition of these families (Euginio, 2012).

When examining the elements of continuity and change in the Philippines, and what the author is trying to convey to the readers is that this aims to explain four important things. First, it seeks to place both Marcos and Aquino’s administration in a much broader historical context. Second, it attempts to present a comprehensive history of the Philippine government and politics during its early stages especially in the Marcos and Aquino era. Third, it attempts to explain the restoration of a democratic government under the administration of Corazon Aquino. Lastly, the attempts to go beyond the mainstream approaches to the current Philippine politics, and pay more attention to the country’s policies and institutions.

Aftermath of Ferdinand Marcos

After the fourteen years under the authoritarian regime of Marcos, a traditional style of democracy has re-emerged. Clearly, no society is unchanging; there have been a number of changes in the traditional pattern of government and politics. The author’s assessment of the democratic administration of Aquino is that it made a lot of changes that plague the Philippine society up today. President Corazon Aquino took the country to the tortuous and difficult task of rebuilding the country from the problems created by the Marcos dictatorship. There were hopes and expectations of the revolution in 1986 that it will result in long term changes in the country’s political system. Her administration demanded a participative democracy, peace and economic growth. One of her aim was to get rid of the pro-Marcos and the projects that resemble Marcos and it was one of the major problems of Aquinos administration yet they still failed. “The traditional democracy restored by President Corazon Aquino is not inherently unstable or unviable” said Timberland. We definitely agree, this is because when Aquino was inaugurated as president, she faced multiple challenges after the imposition of President Ferdinand Marcos. Such problems are the bankruptcy of the national government, foreign debts, and citizen’s loyalty to the fallen president Marcos.

Conclusion

The changes and the inability of this country to adapt to changes have greatly affected our society today. Being a democratic country may be good when the terms and conditions are being read properly in the constitution. However, It's just merely words written on pieces of paper. A famous quote whom we don’t know the author of said that “actions are louder than words”. The actions of the Democratic government and the people towards it are so far than what is actually written in the constitution. With the events that have happened in the past may have left scars but the most important is the lessons of the failures that have occurred. There will be no perfect government or society; no such thing will be ever close to perfection. However, we may strive have to have a harmonious society towards the government, and a government that leads the people without any injustice, social gap, and inequality. Problems cannot be fully eradicated; we just need to practice controlling problems in order to hinder it from becoming a serious problem. Problems cannot be fully eliminated, we can just control it.

References

1. Timberman, D. C. (1991). A Changeless Land: Continuity and Change in Philippine Politics. Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University Press.