Word: martialled
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...Monday to address the Council on Foreign Relations, he will not defend Marcos' policy or ask for American support for the military regime. For events have made Benigo S. Aquino Jr. Marcos' most feared and hated enemy, one of the first jailed when the dictator imposed, in 1972, the martial law that still envelops the country...
Last weekend, on the eve of the eighth anniversary of martial law, Marcos appeared on national television in the Philippines and accused Aquino of colluding with the U.S. to undermine his regime and of sponsoring the wave of urban terrorism which has stricken the country and threatens to topple the dictatorship. The next day, however, Marcos made a public offer asking Aquino to return home and accept a "high government post," in the hope of restoring order to a nation in disarray...
...Marcos could not afford to let him die of a heart attack in jail without creating a martyr and risking the collapse of the regime. He knows he alone can help Marcos stem the ever-swelling tide of revolution in a country that, as he says, "has been under martial law for far too long." Although he bounds about the placid office in Coolidge Hall with energy remarkable for someone just weeks removed from major coronary surgery, he knows the danger to his health and to his life if he returns. He also realizes he cannot stay away too long...
Aquino draws a sordid picture of the Philippines, one that seems vaguely familiar. He says that the story of Marcos' slipping hold on power can be applied roughly to the 14 military dictatorships that have fallen in the last year. "Look, after eight years of martial law, Marcos is losing his grip on the levers of control. If you remove political rights of the people and bring in economic prosperity, you can stave off opposition. But when the economic situation deteriorates, the levers get beyond control...
...lists four external factors that have contributed to the explosive situation in the Philippines, where 20,000 students have been reported protesting and where the incidence of terrorist bombings and guerilla campaigns is increasing daily. "The rise in OPEC oil prices--$180 million before martial law, $12.2 billion now--worldwide inflation, international recession, and an unmanageable national debt--$2 billion in 1972, $11.2 billion now-- have all made Marcos' regime untenable," he says...