Open Field for theStrongman^

Foes boycott an election called by Marcos to solidify his reign

For a country about to go to the polls in a national presidential election, the Philippines was remarkably free last week of campaign rhetoric and barnstorming by candidates. There was a very good reason. The only serious contender for the office was President Ferdinand E. Marcos himself, and even he seemed to have wearied of the charade. Marcos' wife Imelda, 51, who is Human Settlements Minister and second in power only to her husband, has made a few campaign appearances, but the President, 63, has not ventured out for two weeks. The significant political opposition, meanwhile, was sticking to its unanimous decision to boycott the election, which it charged would be so stacked in Marcos' favor as to make the entire process a sham.

The election boycott was a public rebuke for Marcos, who had specifically scheduled the elections to give his 16-year rule a patina of legitimacy. He particularly wanted to show the world--and the U.S.--that he had at least partially restored democracy before he goes to the North-South economic summit in Mexico City this October. Marcos charged that the boycotters were collaborating with Muslim separatists and other outlawed groups, planning a wave of violence.

Even Marcos' opponents were surprised by their solidarity. Said Salvador Laurel, once a presidential hopeful: "This is the first time since martial law was declared in 1972 that this motley crowd of ours has been truly united." At a Manila rally urging voters to stay away from the polls, ex-Senator Gerardo Roxas attacked Marcos' record: "Every election, plebiscite and referendum has been characterized by cheating, and the people no longer have faith in the government."

Government officials continued to point out that boycotting the polls was a crime in the Philippines.* Although the law has rarely been enforced in the past, the government is prosecuting some 50 individuals of the millions who failed to vote in the April plebiscite that confirmed Marcos' strongman powers. What finally persuaded 45 groups throughout the country to organize a unified boycott against Marcos was his refusal to revamp the Commission on Elections. By its power to accredit candidates and rule on cases of voter fraud, the commission can virtually determine the outcome of an election. All eight of its members are Marcos appointees.

No sooner was Marcos left conspicuously alone at the starting gate than the breakfast clubs and coffee shops, where Filipino politicians, reporters and businessmen regularly trade information and gossip, were swept with rumors that the President's backers were dangling big money in front of potential candidates so that somebody would run against him. Assemblyman Reuben Canoy told TIME that a supporter of Marcos' had offered the equivalent of $1.3 million to Canoy if he would challenge the President. Canoy turned the opportunity down. A longtime Marcos ally eventually surfaced as a candidate: Alejo Santos, 69, the fourth choice of the Nacionalista Party, which has generally supported the Marcos regime.

The boycott will deny Marcos the mandate he needs to handle a growing economic crisis. Several of the biggest business groups in the country have been close to bankruptcy. Significantly, most of the troubled conglomerates are run by the so-called Marcos cronies, who rose to prominence under his aegis and received special loans and other favors from the government. The firms include the Herdis Group, the Delta Motors Corp., and the Construction and Development Corp. of the Philippines. The C.D.C.P. alone has received a total of 7.5 billion pesos (almost $1 billion) in government loans and guarantees, a huge sum for such a company in a developing country.

To tide these businesses over, the Central Bank is putting together a 5 billion-peso industrial rescue program. Predicts a U.S. economist: "There will come a point when the Philippine government will have to choose between printing money and allowing some major bankruptcies." At that point too, say some government and financial officials, Marcos will have to choose between protecting his cronies and heeding his own economic specialists.

*Compulsory voting was instituted by Marcos under martial law in 1976. Penalties range up to six months in jail and loss of the right to run for public office.

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