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.