The Philippines: No News Is Bad News

THE PHILIPPINES

Almost a month has passed since the Philippines held a nationwide election for its 200-seat National Assembly, and still there is no final count. The election commission, whose members are appointed by the government of President Ferdinand Marcos, has conceded that the opposition more than quadrupled its representation, from 14 to at least 62 seats, but has yet to give a final tally for eleven seats.

The delay has added fuel to suspicions that the government has engaged in vote fiddling. In the province of Nueva Vizcaya, Opposition Candidate Carlos Padilla was initially reported to have trounced Political Affairs Minister Leonardo Perez by some 19,000 votes. Last week the election commission declared the winner was Perez, who just happened to be its former chairman.

Marcos did not wait for the final results to announce a series of austerity measures last week, including a 28.6% de facto devaluation of the peso, designed to meet International Monetary Fund conditions for a new loan to the heavily indebted nation (total: $25.6 billion). The President also placed Manila on alert and had checkpoints set up in the wake of two fires and the murder of a police general.

ARGENTINA

All in Favor of Unity

"We have inaugurated a new political style in the country," Argentine President Raul Alfonsin declared as he signed a 15-point agreement with former President María Estela (Isabelita) Martínez de PerÓn and the leaders of 14 other parties last week. The pact was another step in Alfonsín's drive to maintain national unity at a time when the country is facing an annual inflation rate of 568% and growing labor unrest. Some 400,000 miners, bus drivers, waterworks employees and metal-and grain-workers are currently demanding wage increases.

The agreement put both the government and the Peronists on record as favoring eventual repayment of the country's $43.6 billion foreign debt, though its language was so fuzzy as to allow a wide range of interpretations. Still less was said about the austerity program that Alfonsin's six-month-old government will need to introduce soon if it is to persuade the International Monetary Fund to refinance part of the nation's debt.

A day later, as the widow of Juan Perón prepared to return to Spain, where she has lived in exile since her ouster by a military junta in 1976, a bomb was found aboard the plane. Quickly transferring to another aircraft, she told well-wishers, "Nobody dies five minutes before one's time."

BOLIVIA

Win Some, Lose Some

Mixing sports and politics is fashionable, but in Bolivia the combination tends to be downright confusing. Four years ago, Bolivia did not send a team to the 1980 Summer Olympics. Though officials blamed a strapped economy, some accused the government of joining the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games.

Last week Bolivia announced it would not send a team to the 1984 Olympics. Again officials pleaded poverty. This time, however, many suspected that the government, which now counts two Communists in the Cabinet, was bent on following the Soviet lead in boycotting the Los Angeles Games.