Ramos acts against S'pore to survive

Ramos acts against S'pore to survive

By Cecil Morella

MANILA (AFP): The last time the Philippines worked itself up
to a fury over a corpse, a president was toppled. So Fidel Ramos
was taking no chances when he yanked bilateral ties close to the
breaking point after Singapore hanged a Filipina maid.

Manila downgraded diplomatic ties and threatened to cut them
off, canceled official visits, warned its nationals from
traveling to its neighbor and refused to punish Singapore flag-
burners after being stung by a powerful public backlash against
the execution.

"In a manner totally unexpected, Flor Contemplacion's case has
become a major issue in the May 1995 elections," said sociologist
Randolf David of the University of the Philippines. "Almost every
candidate in the present campaign has expressed a view on the
tragedy."

To foreign eyes, President Ramos courted disaster by
antagonizing the sixth largest employer of overseas Filipinos, a
major trading partner and a key ally in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But analysts here say the
gesture made perfect political sense.

"Ramos gets tough," trumpeted the Philippine press Thursday
after having roundly criticized him for his lack of "spine."

Political analysts say Ramos' actions were dictated by the
dynamics of the ongoing campaign: He needs to secure a majority
in the chronically obstructionist congress to ensure the passage
of his reformist policies for the last three years of his term.

Amando Doronila wrote in the Philippine Inquirer newspaper
that the execution had "damaged the administration's electoral
chances," which rested on Ramos' track record of having revived a
moribund economy, and had "handed a windfall to the opposition."

The condemned maid had confessed to the 1991 murder of a
fellow Filipina maid and a Singapore toddler, but most Filipinos
charge the confession was extracted through torture, and
Singapore's rejection of last-minute appeals to consider new
evidence rankled.

"Ramos should be on the side of the public on this case
because the very basis of his legitimacy rests on the support of
the people," said Noel Morada, ASEAN expert of the Institute for
Strategic and Development Studies.

Filipinos are steeped in the powerful symbolism of corpses.

The 1983 assassination by soldiers and police of opposition
leader Benigno Aquino sparked a national upheaval which led to
the toppling of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

The maid's hanging cut to the bone because up to 7.7 percent
of the population, by official estimates, are employed abroad.

Ramos says a fifth of the population depend on their earnings.
"The export of human beings no longer appears as just a short-
term coping mechanism of a beleaguered economy. It has become
manifestly the principal feature of our economic strategy," said
David.

"We tend to assuage our collective guilt as a nation by
attaching to these Filipino compatriots the empty label 'our
modern heroes,'" he added.

Doronila said the case "shows up the fragility of the fabric
of ASEAN political cohesion that is increasingly being frayed by
differences in political and legal systems," and noted that the
authoritarian senior leader of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, has been
a frequent critic of Philippine democracy.

Morada said he did not think ASEAN, grouping Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will
"disintegrate," but that "this is a test case" on regional
cohesion.

"The other ASEAN nations are watching developments," he said,
noting that Jakarta and Bangkok, among others also have many
workers in Singapore.