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The Philippines: New Regime, Same Neo-Liberal Economic Policies

In January, after months of mass protests throughout the Philippines, President Joseph Estrada was forced out of office and a sweeping investigation into corruption under his presidency began. The protests were the largest the country had seen since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed Marcos dictatorship some twenty years earlier.

Estrada has been accused of graft and plundering the country's economy, offences which carry the death penalty. A special prosecutor has been appointed to head up the investigation, although Estrada has claimed he has presidential status and is immune from prosecution.

In the years since the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship, the Philippines have seen four separate administrations fail to sort out any of the essential problems facing the country's 70 million people. Indeed, as all of these governments have imposed the neo-liberal economic policies pushed by the IMF and World Bank as a condition of financial assistance, the economic situation of the peasantry in the Philippines has deteriorated massively.

The Philippines, wealthy in natural resources and agricultural land, is entirely indebted with one third of the annual budget spent on debt-servicing charges. The economic situation has forced the migration of millions of Filipinos abroad to jobs in Europe, North America and Asia.

It is not surprising, then, that many of the country's institutions are viewed with increasing suspicion and hostility by the Filipino people. The election of Estrada, a former film star, who entered the Senate on the basis of the public support he won when he participated in the protests against the U.S. military presence in the Philippines in the 1980s, further exacerbated the crisis. Estrada, initially sold by the ruling classes as a charismatic leader who would be able to move the country forward, governed the country much like a gangster, stealing an estimated $400 million (U.S.) in state funds. Estrada also put an end to the peace negotiations that were begun under the Ramos administration in 1996, effectively throwing the country once more into civil war.

Estrada formally terminated peace talks with the National Democratic Front and other resistance movements in May of 1999, concocting a process of "localized peace talks" aimed at trying to divide and conquer the groups fighting in different parts of the Philippines. In the meantime, the Filipino army and police forces were engaged in the murder and torture of a number of different militants.

The new president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, has been portrayed by the country's media as an anti-corruption fighter, with great emphasis placed on her high moral character and religious beliefs. "Gloria [Arroyo] can actually do quite a lot, at the very least, to restore some decency to the institutions that have been so shattered," according to Karina Constantino, a former housing minister in the Estrada government.

Making use of this media image, Arroyo has been active in implementing the economic policies the Estrada government couldn't have got away with because of its unpopularity. While still the subject of some debate, she is soon expected to sign into law the bill to privatize the National Power Corporation (Napocor), currently $6.7 billion pesos in debt. Under the provisions of the bill being debated in the Senate, 70 percent of Napocor's assets would be privatized within three years from the start of its implementation, with foreign companies able to freely bid. Other measures to make it easier for foreign companies to invest in all aspects of the Philippine economy are also on Arroyo's agenda.

New regime, same new-liberal economic policies.