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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 26, 1983
PAGE 7
drawal from the Philippines back to Pearl Harbor would have an enormous im
pact upon key U.S. allies in Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
Japan, for one, would have an even greater impetus to speed up rearmament.
Here are some pertinent excerpts on the Philippine situation from an
editorial in the August 23, 1983 WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Mr. Marcos the politician has shown outstanding skill at some of
the tasks necessary to development--negotiating, distributing
incentives, concerting wills. No one can say with any certainty
that whoever follows him is going to do better.
What is happening in the Philippines calls to mind the� of
Iran. In Iran, a shah who was in some ways a reformer and in some
ways a strict authoritarian tried to make a modern country with
out building the modern political institutions that are necessary
to support long-term development. The effort collapsed. In ret
rospect that collapse seems to have been inevitable, but back
then no one paid enough attention to spy the signs.
In the Philippines also, a ruler is trying to practice develop
ment while fearing the full exercise of democracy. The Philip
pines is no Iran. Its Western-style institutions are much more
firmly in place: when Mr. Marcos goes, the place will not
collapse into politically primitive rubble. But what we might
see, as one expert has put it, is a slow, downward spiral into
more and more political disorder anadTsappointing economic per
rormance.
After World War II, Filipinos held high hopes for their country's
progress. A chief cause of instability there today is that their
country's performance, though by no means abysmal, has disap
pointed those hopes. What we can do for them is a puzzle. But
the answer to the puzzle is not for the Reagan administration to
turn its back on Mr. Marcos.
And in forming our policy, we
shouldn't forget that there are other f OWers out there waiting to
�. advantage of whatever new instability comes to trouble the
Philippines.
President Marcos, age 65, is said to be in not very good health. He has
been in office now for 18 years. While controversy surrounds his rulership
(much of it stirred up by idealistic university students at home and by op
ponents living in the U.S.), few leaders in Asia today see the "big picture"
as does President Marcos.
"Marcos has a good strategic view of the world and the region," says an
American official in the Philippines. "He understands the dynamics of the
power politics that are now going on."
Marcos realizes that U.S. power is absolutely essential to the preservation
of peace throughout the Western Pacific. Part of the money the U.S. spends
on rent for Clark, Subic Bay and the 20 other smaller U.S. military instal
lations in the islands goes to buy weapons to fight off insurgent groups.
Some of Mr. Marcos' democratic foes are highly idealistic Philippine na
tionalists who feel that the Philippines will never be free until "all
forms of foreign domination"--meaning the U.S. bases--are eliminated. Mr.
Marcos, a realist, knows this is folly.