MANILA -- Military interventions in Philippine politics are not a novel phenomenon. The politicization of the armed forces occurred during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, when the influence and power of officers were determined not by merit or performance but by political allegiance to factions or cliques. Ever since, the military has played the role of political arbiter in crucial moments of Philippine history.
The armed forces gave their blessing to the transfer of power from Marcos to Corazon Aquino in 1986 following what is often referred to as the People Power Revolution. And in early 2001, the decision of the military leadership to withdraw support from disgraced President Joseph Estrada paved the way to power for the incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In an international comparison of troop strength and military hardware, the 113,000-strong Philippine armed forces may be termed relatively weak. But in their case, too, applies an observation by Harvard scholar Samuel Huntington: "What drives the soldier into the political arena is not his own strength but rather the weakness of the political system."