Binding Up the Wounds

Settling scores with bullets rather than ballots is nothing new in the Philippines, where personal vendettas are frequently settled in the heat of campaigning. But from the moment two grenades ripped through a political rally in Manila's Plaza Miranda last August, killing nine bystanders and wounding every one of the Liberal Party's eight senatorial candidates, the off-year election race promised to be one of the bloodiest ever. When the polls closed last week, even the most hardened observers were appalled at the carnage: a record 206 known dead, 217 wounded.

The violence did not frighten the voters away from the polls; 80% of the qualified electorate cast ballots. Nor did voters take seriously President Ferdinand Marcos' claims that Liberal-aided Communist insurgents were about to overthrow the government. In a stinging personal defeat for Marcos and a severe setback for his ruling Nacionalista Party, the voters gave the underdog Liberals six of the eight contested Senate seats--the only national offices at stake --as well as the Manila mayoralty. Marcos' party did considerably better in some 15,000 local and provincial races, but many of them were uncontested.

Crutches and Wheelchairs. The results were in sharp contrast to Marcos' overwhelming victories in 1965 and 1969. The opposition Liberals charged the administration with graft and corruption, failure to control rising living costs, and a double standard of justice for rich and poor. They also accused the President of intending to circumvent the constitutional limit of two terms by running his lovely wife Imelda for President in 1973. Marcos seemed to confirm as much when he said recently that his wife might have to run "to prevent a Communist tool from becoming President."

But it was the explosion at Plaza Miranda that overshadowed everything else. For more than a month, the whole Liberal slate was hospitalized. After the candidates emerged, with crutches, wheelchairs and bandages, their campaign appearances resembled a mobile hospital ward. Ramon Bagatsing, who was elected Manila's new mayor last week, had lost a leg; Senator Jovito Salonga, another winner, received extensive shrapnel wounds. A Manila businessman observed: "It was like watching a hospital scene on television. But it will work for the Liberals, all right."

Humble Start. Marcos did nothing to help his popularity when he seized on the incident to invoke emergency powers. Warning of a Communist plot to burn Manila and kidnap public officials, he revoked habeas corpus and had nearly 100 people arrested, including a college president. Late last week 11 persons were charged with subversion and gun running.

In a peace bid to the winners, whose strength in the 24-seat Senate soared from two to eight, Marcos said: "I'd like to start as humble as anyone can be. Let's get together." Plainly, the Liberals are no longer the only politicians in the Philippines who are nursing wounds.

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