"People power" has a long history in the Philippines. Mass protests have unseated two presidents. The current president, Mrs. Gloria Arroyo, who came to office on the tide of the second uprising, is determined not to be the third. Last week, she declared a state of emergency to quash a coup. She has succeeded in stopping the uprising but, in so doing, stained her reputation -- again -- and further weakened democracy in the Philippines.
Twenty years ago, the Philippine people rose up against dictator Ferdinand Marcos and threw him out of office. That bloodless coup gave Ms. Corazon Aquino, widow of a popular leader whose assassination on the tarmac of the Manila airport set the uprising in motion, the reins of state and marked the first "people power" revolution in the country's modern history. Five years ago, in January 2001, President Joseph Estrada was overthrown by a mass uprising protesting his administration's incompetence and corruption. When the dust had settled, Mrs. Arroyo, the vice president, took power.
While the popular mythology is that mass protest was the key to the two movements, in fact it was the support of the military that guaranteed the success of each uprising. In both cases, top officials in the military had lost confidence in the president; their unwillingness to order troops to shed civilian blood tipped the balance and brought a new government to office.