The Philippines Things Fall Apart

In their election campaigning against Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino and her vice-presidential running mate, Salvador Laurel, were often photographed kneeling together in prayer before church altars. Seeing the pious pair, some Filipinos quipped that the couple looked as though they were being married. Indeed, the Aquino-Laurel partnership was a political marriage, though merely one of convenience. He shared his well-greased political machine with her. She shared her enormous popularity with him. Little else.

Now they have nothing. Laurel announced last week that because he opposed many of Aquino's policies, he could not remain in his Cabinet post as Foreign Secretary, though he would retain the vice presidency. He complained bitterly + of having been treated as an outcast in her government. Using the Tagalog word for the mosquito netting draped over conjugal beds, Laurel said that Aquino had kept him "outside the kulambo."

The Aquino-Laurel divorce was only the latest sign that the President was still struggling to get a grip on an increasingly fractious government. A week earlier she had demanded the resignation of all 26 members of her Cabinet. Now advisers who had been at her side since the beginning of her tumultuous political career were departing Malacanang Palace. Among them were the leaders of the Cabinet factions whose intramural bickering had made ruling virtually impossible: Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo, her closest confidant, and Finance Secretary Jaime Ongpin, the industrialist whose expertise had given the country's debt renegotiations a needed dose of respectability.

Meanwhile, nearly a month after the violent mutiny of Colonel Gregorio ("Gringo") Honasan and 14 of the country's 86 army battalions, disaffection with Aquino among Philippine troops continued to grow. Playing for time, the President appears to have become heavily dependent on loyal officers in the armed forces. Contributing to the rising sense of danger, the Manila press crackled with new rumors of coups and palace intrigue.

Stability was further shattered by the assassination on Saturday of Leandro Alejandro, 27, leader of Bayan, perhaps the largest legal alliance of the Philippine left. Alejandro was shot at point-blank range by unidentified gunmen outside Bayan headquarters just two days before he was scheduled to lead an antigovernment rally. Summing up the air of unrest, Businessman Antonio Gatmaitan said, "Remember the old curse, 'May you live in interesting times'? I think this is it."

After announcing his "irrevocable" resignation as Foreign Secretary, Vice President Laurel accused Aquino of reneging on a pre-election agreement to allow him to run the government. Aquino had "admitted that she would be incapable of running it since she had no experience," Laurel complained. There seemed to be some basis to his claim. On the eve of the February 1986 election, a high-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman -- and a prominent Aquino backer -- told a visitor that since Aquino claimed to be only a "housewife," he expected her to step down a few months after the election and turn the presidency over to Laurel.