Asia Buzz: Failed Hero

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Thursday, May. 3, 2001 Few men have done more to sabotage their own place in history than Juan Ponce Enrile. Back in 1986, when the People Power revolution was sweeping the Philippines, then Defense Minister Enrile and his compatriot, General Fidel Ramos, played key roles in toppling President Ferdinand Marcos and ushering in democracy. As a hero of the revolution, Enrile expected his next address would be Malacanang Palace -- home of the country's President. Today, he's sitting where he probably belongs: in a Manila jail cell.

Senator Enrile was arrested along with 11 others for allegedly directing a mob to overrun Malacanang earlier this week. According to the "Philippine Daily Inquirer," government intelligence officers said Enrile and his cohorts were ready to order renegade army units into the presidential palace once the mobs breached the front gates. On the pretext of restoring order, they planned to assume control of the government, ousting President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

But the mobs never quite made it into Malacanang. Loyal army units barely held them back, although four people, including one soldier, died in the melee. More than 100 people were injured. And so President Arroyo, citing a "state of rebellion,'' ordered the arrest of Enrile and his cohorts, including Senator Gregorio Honasan, a former army colonel.

The 11 are all innocent until proven guilty. It's not hard, however, to believe that they were plotting a coup. After all, Enrile and Honasan were the same two who tried to topple President Corazon Aquino by force several times during her term. Maybe it's the machismo, but the sight of a woman in the seat of power sends these two into a coup d'etat frenzy. They should have been jailed back then, but democracy was new and fragile and, though noble, Aquino was weak. President Arroyo is a different breed. She talks tough. But Arroyo doesn't just talk the talk -- she walks the walk.

Back when these serial coup launchers were building their rap sheet, the man who rallied the army to save the Aquino government was Enrile's former comrade in arms, Gen. Ramos. When they turned on Marcos back in 1986, it wasn't out of a love for democracy. It was out of an instinct for self-preservation. They had fallen out of favor with the dictator, and were about to be relieved of their commands.

Ramos, however, emerged as a man of vision. He was wise enough to sense the tide of history, and threw his weight and power behind building a democracy. His reward was the presidency. The people overwhelmingly elected him at the end of Aquino's term. Stability and progress marked his tenure.

Had Enrile possessed even half of Ramos' wisdom, he would have played a supporting role in cementing a democratic Philippines. Had he done so, he could have made it to Malacanang on the votes of the people, instead of failing to do so on the bullets of bandits in uniform.

After doing as much as anyone to bring about democracy, Enrile has spent the last 15 years trying to bring back dictatorship. In the history of Southeast Asia, Ramos will be remembered as one of the region's finer statesmen. If Enrile is remembered at all, it will be with no such honor.