Testy Words in Manila

Less than a month after a massive student attack on the Malacanang presidential palace (TIME, Feb. 16), another violent demonstration took place last week in Manila. This time the target was the U.S. embassy. When it was all over, both the embassy and U.S.-Philippine relations had been somewhat damaged, 78 people were under arrest and the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos seemed less secure than ever.

It all started with a massive but peaceful meeting at Plaza Miranda, where 40,000 students, peasants and workers were trying unsuccessfully to organize a united front for future political action. Egged on by a labor leader's well-worn charge that the CIA was out to control the Philippine labor movement, some 2,000 of the demonstrators set off for the U.S. embassy. They managed to smash windows for about 45 minutes until Filipino riot police arrived belatedly and dispersed them.

Next day, U.S. Ambassador Henry Byroade fired off an unusually strong protest charging that the Philippine government had ignored his requests (made before the demonstration) to protect his embassy--"a defenseless hostage"-from "an act of wanton vandalism." Foreign Secretary Carlos Romulo, who senses the mood of his country and is less friendly to the U.S. than in former times, apologized for the attack but testily suggested that the embassy "ponder such legitimate grievances" as the Plaza Miranda demonstrators voiced. Presumably he was alluding to often repeated charges that U.S. firms plunder Philippine mineral resources and that U.S. servicemen accused of local crimes are sometimes shipped home before they can stand trial. Nonetheless, when another band of protesters formed a picket line at the embassy three days later, police quickly dispersed them.

President Marcos, under attack by his enemies for his pro-U.S. policies, remained aloof from the squabble. But he betrayed his uneasiness when he told a meeting of local officials about his fear of being killed by "subversive elements"--a notion probably nurtured by the prediction of a soothsayer that he will be assassinated before April.

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