A Real Contest

An uphill fight against Fernando and superwife

She sweeps into the shabby residential Manila district of Santa Cruz in a black limousine, escorted by a busload of security guards and surrounded by political aides, cheerleaders, TV and movie stars. The crowd is enthralled by First Lady Imelda Marcos' skillful blend of political harangue and folksy charm. "I can tell the President what you need here," she says. "And you know that Imelda always gets action. "As the crowd roars its approval, Mrs. Marcos sings a couple of old favorite Filipino songs and throws jasmine garlands into the audience. Then she is off--for yet another speech, her eighth of the day.

Across town in Polo Valenzueba, 3,000 people assemble for another kind of political rally: a blistering attack on both Imelda and her husband, President Ferdinand E. Marcos. There are matrons in housedresses, grizzled workers, youths in T shirts and jeans, and a swarm of children enchanted by the carnival atmosphere. The speakers stand on a makeshift platform mounted on four oil drums as Opposition Candidate Charito Planas declares, in a high resounding operatic pitch, "President Marcos is taping this rally. Let's let him hear how loud our voices are. " The crowd responds with upraised fists and shouts of "Laban! laban!" (Fight! fight!).

Such unaccustomed and boisterous scenes have become nightly affairs throughout sprawling, overpopulated Manila, as the Philippines' first election campaign in almost six years draws to a climax. At stake in this week's vote are 200 seats in the new interim National Assembly, the parliamentary body that Marcos designed as an improvement over the martial law that he imposed in 1972. It is a step, he claims, toward "normalcy." With anti-Marcos candidates actively campaigning not only in Manila but also far to the south in Cebu and Davao, the election, reported TIME Correspondent Richard Bernstein from the capital last week, has become a crucial test of the President's popularity.

Heading the President's K.B.L. (New Society Movement) ticket is Superwife Imelda, 48, who has served as the flamboyant, can-do governor of metropolitan Manila since 1975. The leader of the opposition party, Strength of the Nation (known as Laban, for its constant battle cry), is Marcos' bitterest political rival, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., a former Liberal

Party Senator and presidential candidate who has been jailed on charges of murder and subversion since the day martial law was declared.

Though still in prison, the charismatic Aquino has managed to turn the campaign into a genuine contest--with some unwitting help from the government. Last month Aquino was given the chance on national television to rebut official charges that he had been a CIA agent. Speaking from his detention center in Fort Bonifacio, Aquino first coolly refuted the CIA charge. Then, with millions of Manilans still glued to their TV sets, he launched into a crisp, rapid-fire denial of a raft of other government charges against him. That dramatic appearance provided a crucial boost to Marcos' opposition, whose crowds have multiplied rapidly.

To counter Laban's growing appeal, the government has been forced to wage an unexpectedly urgent campaign of its own. In a televised speech last week, Marcos not only charged the opposition with "sowing discord, hate, confusion and resentment," but called it the "strong and willing handmaiden" of a Communist effort to "create disorder." The President has courted votes with more than just words. In the past few weeks, he has fattened government pensions by about 12%, boosted the base salaries of teachers (who will serve as vote counters) by 20%, and promised slum dwellers that they will soon be able to buy the tiny plots of land they live on for 830 per sq. yd., down from the previous fixed price of $83. Said one Laban candidate: "Marcos has had twelve years to do these things. It is only because he is now faced with serious opposition that he is forced to take real actions for the poor."

Marcos announced the results of a government poll purportedly showing that all 21 K.B.L. candidates are favored to win, with the weakest K.B.L. candidate likely to poll 300,000 votes more than the strongest Laban candidate. But many political observers doubt those findings, arguing that Aquino, for one, should surely be among the top vote getters. Various straw polls taken at such institutions as the University of the Philippines and the Central Bank, moreover, show that Laban may even have an overall lead.

Whatever the result, the campaign itself has already profoundly changed the political mood in the Philippines. Only a few months ago, riot police would have broken up any attempt to hold a rally against martial law. Now ten such rallies take place every night. Clearly, in agreeing to make a contest of the election at all, Marcos encouraged expectations that the process of restoring democracy to Philippine political life will continue. As Jerry Barican, a law professor and Laban candidate, said last week: "For the first time in five years, we have been able to put our message across to the people. In that sense, we have already won."

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