Marcos Wins His Election Battle

But his opposition scores some points too

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos should have been pleased. In an election for 165 seats in the interim National Assembly--the first such vote since 1972, when Marcos imposed martial law and rule by decree--his New Society Movement had made what the President himself called "a clean sweep." In Manila, where the election had turned into an emotionally charged referendum on martial law itself, Marcos' stalwarts took all 21 seats over the energetic opposition Laban Party. Marcos' wife Imelda was the biggest vote getter, but even the last-place Marcos partisan ran 300,000 votes better than Laban Leader Benigno Aquino Jr., an archfoe of Marcos, who had to campaign from the military detention center where he has been held on charges of murder and subversion since the day martial law was declared.

Still, Marcos was unhappy, not so much over the returns but because of events surrounding them. Laban followers protested noisily about election fraud, while many others were angry over the government's claims of total victory. At a Malacanang Palace press conference with visiting foreign journalists last week, he accused reporters of egging on the Labanites. He has also charged unnamed Western organizations and the CIA with "meddling" in the 45-day campaign. Marcos even blamed himself for having relaxed martial law and restrained his police. Affecting a kind of no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy grimness, he said: "I should be more prudent and cautious in dismantling the forces that enforce the law."

That unmistakable presidential warning of crackdown worked a dramatic mood change on Manila. A week earlier the capital had been alive with pre-election exhilaration as crowds gathered openly for the first time in nearly six years to hear opposition candidates blast Ferdinand and Imelda for everything from trampling civil rights to amassing private fortunes. Last week the only comments about the presidential couple were paeans from Manila's tame press.

The opposition, however, charged that ballot-box rigging rather than hard campaigning was responsible for the Marcos sweep. Laban poll watchers had been harassed in many cases on voting day itself; in monitoring a suspiciously slow canvass of the returns, which at week's end was less than half finished, Laban claimed such irregularities as completely fictitious tally sheets. Even many people who were not Laban activists were disturbed. One group of 17 Jesuit priests petitioned the Philippine Conference of Catholic Bishops to conduct an investigation, saying there were mounting indications that a "deliberate, systematic and therefore widespread dishonesty has occurred."

Laban backers took to the streets to protest the results. In one demonstration on Manila's busy Espana Boulevard, 600 of them followed two coffins representing Philippine democracy and freedom. After a silent walk of half an hour, 560 were arrested and carted to jail. Most were later released, but eight leaders, including venerable former Senator Lorenzo Tanada, 79, one of the country's most respected politicians, were charged with sedition.

Undismayed, the opposition scheduled another "noise barrage" at week's end, similar to an election-eve demonstration, in which people were to honk horns, shoot off fireworks and make other noises to indicate support for Laban and Aquino. Seeking the sponsors of the demonstration, police carried out a series of raids on religious institutions, including a seminary, two convents and a study house at Jesuit Ateneo University. To scare people away from the demonstration, Marcos announced that he was "lifting the policy of restraint" and authorizing arrests. The scare tactics worked: the demonstration fizzled. Said one observer: "Marcos calculated correctly. People were ready to demonstrate during the campaign when martial law was suspended, but now it's not important enough to risk going to jail."

Marcos, meanwhile, spent a good part of the week orchestrating a campaign to tarnish Laban's image, going so far as to charge that the party, which included some of the Philippines' most respected political figures, was "under the control of subversives." Four of the unsuccessful Laban candidates decided to go underground for safety, among them Activist Lawyer Charito Planas, the most outspoken Marcos opponent during the campaign. Her house was raided last week by police, who said they found an illegal rifle, 17 rounds of ammunition and "subversive materials." Planas' supporters insisted that the evidence had been rigged.

The election could conceivably produce at least one reaction that Marcos had not counted on. His government is currently negotiating for a substantial increase in compensation for American military bases in the Philippines. By allowing the vote, Marcos sought to prove to Congress, which must ratify the agreements, that charges of human rights violations against his regime were exaggerated. On the evidence so far, the election and its aftermath seemed to indicate just the opposite.

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