New Battle for the Philippines

...A businessman predicted "people will adjust," but allowed that "there are fanatics, and we dread what might crop up...

...They have therefore adopted a strategy that seeks to exploit the deepening divisions in the ruling structure...

...The doors to the mansion proper were locked, but peering through a window I could make out a grand ballroom...

...As I made my way down a winding road through luxuriant gardens, the "Mal-acanang of the North" loomed suddenly by a river, silent as a ghost mansion...

...The place is quite literally a showcase for Marcos...

...A couple of women, caretakers of the museum, hovered nearby...

...He would, however, like to turn the sentiment for Marcos into a vehicle for advancing his own obvious power aims—and so would virtually all of the other recently emergent Aquino challengers...

...Although intimidation and violence have been the norm in Philippine pontics—Marcos himself shot and killed a political opponent of his father's shortly before the Japanese overran the country in World War II—his backers recognize Aquino's popularity...

...My amazement at the sight of such secluded luxury must have shown on my face, because the trooper was grinning as he turned off the lights...

...Meanwhile, they have been harping on the Philippine Army's lack of success in coping with the growing Communist guerrilla activity—conveniently ignoring the fact that the military's weakened state is a result of years of corruption under their idol...

...Looking through the window, I was slightly astonished to see yet another of those glass-encased plaster statues...

...Proclaiming that Marcos is the Philippines' rightful leader, they urge his return from exile...

...Formerly you could not go inside," says my local critic...

...We don't have private armies in Ilocos Norte because everyone is armed...

...Absurd as such a marriage may seem, it is not out of the question...

...Visibly nervous, she suggested that I leave quickly, before she got in trouble with the Aquino agents...

...Fort Ilocandia is practically deserted today, except for the provincial guards who have replaced the Presidential Security Command detachment ordered by Marcos to keep the place safe for him when he was in power...

...And it would stave off the immediate dangers posed by conniving Cabinet ministers and generals...

...She, too, is capable of forging new alliances and dividing her enemies by playing Enrile off against the Leftists in the Cabinet, by dealing with some Communist leaders to the exclusion of others, by extending an olive branch to selected Marcos proteges to draw them out of his web...

...Communist guerrillas and private armies, all pitted against one another and her in the battle for the Philippines...

...Such a gracious show of forgiveness would win her the support of Ilocanos...

...dozens of lights illuminated the broad verandas, the swimming pool and the tennis courts...

...A series of regional conflicts is also a possibility, with local warlords increasing the size of their notorious private armies to defend their own turf—and to cut deals with rivals...

...Marcos will be back...

...For the ordinary Ilocano, the Marcos legacy endures most visibly in the nearby village of Batae...

...Not surprisingly, nowhere is that sentiment deeper, or more apparent, than in the Ilocos region of northern Luzon...

...Framed newspaper clippings boast of the highlights of his career: his top score on the bar exam, his political victories, his final acquittal on the charge of murdering his father's political foe...

...Next door is the enormous brick-block mansion of Marcos' son, Ferdinand Jr., nicknamed "Bongbong," and around the corner are mansions built for his daughter Irene and General Fabian Ver, the military chief who joined the flight to Hawaii...

...Why don't you tell your President, Hands off the Philippines...

...But at present the crowds of Filipinos who go on hour-long tours of the Palace, while stunned by its decadent opulence, remain awed by the vestiges of a man who endured for so long, who enriched himself so vastly...

...Despite the failure of the Manila Hotel takeover in July, Marcos loyalists scarcely hide their dream of ousting CorazonC...

...I counted 33 life-size statues of him encased in glass...

...The only reason civil war has not erupted, he explains with a laugh, is that the region is so poor: "Up here you don't have anything to protect...

...They are cast in plaster from the same mold, but each sports a different costume he once actually wore: Tennis outfits, Western business suits, Filipino barongs...

...In opposing the slightest gesture of reconciliation toward the Communist New People's Army (NPA), Marcos' partisans hope to eventually win back the loyalty of the top military people who swung over to Aquino when she gained power...

...Whatever the scenarios of her opponents, though, it would be unwise to forget Cory Aquino's considerable political skills...

...Under the circumstances, Aquino's ultimate gesture might be to let Marcos retire and die in Ilocos Norte...

...shouted a drunken bureaucrat in the municipal office of Sarrat, Marcos' birthplace a few miles from Batae...

...To her, there remains only one "President"— Marcos...

...But the selling of Marcos, until he fled, was by far the biggest industry in the province...

...A conspicuous example of his largess, 15 minutes by car from the local airport, is the spacious Fort Ilocandia, a luxury hotel commanding a sweeping view of the South China Sea...

...First, they would like to embarrass the government by registering substantial opposition to the proposed new constitution in the plebiscite set for next February...

...In the middle of the grounds, surrounded by well tended gardens and lawns, is Maharlika Hall, a flossy conference center named for the guerrilla unit Marcos claims to have heroically led against the Japanese in World War II...

...They apologized for the fact that the new government had ordered the place closed...

...Down the street I found the church and residence of Manuel L. Lagasca, archbishop of the Philippine Independent Church, a breakaway sect claiming 2.5 million members, all Marcos loyalists...

...Her decision to turn Malaca-nang Palace into a museum displaying the excesses of the ancien regime could, as intended, even hasten Marcos' recession to the harmless level of myth and mystique...

...He loved his fellow man...

...The walls display pictures of Marcos from childhood to dashing youth to handsome middle age—lifting weights, meeting important people, posing with Imel-da after their wedding in 1954...

...Built by the government at Marcos' behest for his 60th birthday in 1977, it boasts a gambling casino (that was supervised by officials noted for their corruption), plus an elaborate sports complex, with tennis, golf and swimming facilities...

...talk of revolution is pandemic in the "Solid North.' "I'm fearing very much about it," said Monsignor Gil Abano Jr., vicar general of the ancient cathedral here...

...IN MARCOS' SHADOW New Battle for the Philippines BY DONALD KIRK Manila The shadow of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos, never fully expunged, now looms increasingly large in this troubled country...

...He is a patriot...

...Then, in the May elections to select a new national legislature, and in the balloting expected shortly afterward on the local level to replace the "officers in charge'" appointed by the Aquino government, they plan to mount loyalist candidates...

...The people barely contain their simmering anger over Marcos' ouster...

...Ilocos Norte is Marcos country—90 per cent of the population is for Marcos...

...He repaid the compliment by thinking first of his Ilocano roots, and relatives, when it came to dispensing cash and favors...

...During the reign of Marcos it was used only by friends and officials...

...The Defense Minister, who held the same post during most of Marcos' rule before jumping on the Aquino bandwagon, is for his part unlikely to go courting the leader he helped dump...

...Not all Ilocanos share his nonchalance...

...It was dusk, and the trooper accompanying me flicked on a battery of switches...

...At a nearby roadside stand, a man who identified himself as a "Marcos loyalist" said he thought the exiled President "probably will come back because it's his home town—not for revolution or anything...

...The deported leader's friends and sympathizers do much of their praying —and cheering and chanting and speech-making—at weekly demonstrations in downtown Manila...

...You only have to defend your life...

...The archbishop swigged downaCoke,then marched me back to the museum to get permission for me to see the sights...

...Everybody says 'MarcosPaRin,' the slogan meaning 'Marcos Still,'" the silver-haired archbishop told me while donning his priestly garb after a workout at the punching bag...

...I still needed permission, though, to go beyond the sports complex, past a guardhouse manned by the Philippine Constabulary, to the real jewel of Ilocos Norte, a Spanish-colonial-style palace that served as a retreat for Marcos from the intrigues of his Manila court...

...Donald Kirk, a longtime contributor and veteran observer of Asian affairs, is now a correspondentJ\u 11S A Today...

...The Communist NP A guerrillas can be expected to try to take advantage of the rifts in all factions, whom they without exception regard as decadent elitists...

...The President is the owner," insists one of them, ImeldaTuan, "because this is the former house of the father...

...His wife demurs, reminding him that the region's garlic farmers consider their crop "white gold...

...Oneexception, amusicianwho dares to be critical as long as I promise not to use his name, declares: "Everybodyisa warlord here...

...One of the houses has been converted into a museum...

...Aquino has already revealed her diplomatic finesse by leaving the icons and memorabilia of the Marcos era intact for his admirers to worship, rather than engaging in a vengeful campaign of destruction...

...We just cry and wait for the help of God," a woman sitting beneath portraits of Marcos and his wife Imelda told me...

...It too is a museum, but a gray-haired servant who emerged from a hut in the back shook her head negatively when I asked her to open the door...

...I later tried to get into the small house where Marcos was born...

...Indeed, they are heartened by Enrile's outspoken skepticism over Aquino's willingness to negotiate with the NPA, which can now claim more than 20,000 armed men throughout the country...

...A couple of his colleagues had to restrain him from chasing me out of the building...

...Not that anyone really expects the street rallies to flare up into open revolt...

...All the people support Marcos here," says a talkative clerk in the office of the Mayor of Laoag, a market town of 80,000 and capital of Ilocos Norte, Marcos' native province...

...A guard who waved me away when I tried to go in said it was closed...

...Marcos and his allies could then be confined to the relatively small area of Ilocos Norte, leaving the NPA to range freely over the rest of the country...

...Anyone defying the government in this bailiwick, though, is likely to become a hero...

...The NP A rationale could be that covert contacts with Marcos' entourage would deepen the divisions in Manila, speeding the breakup of the government...

...The profound pro-Marcos sentiment that exists in Ilocos and elsewhere in the country portends continuing Philippine instability...

...We pray he will come back to serve us again...

...There, across a park in the center of town, stand a pair of great houses in which Mariano Marcos, at the height of his wealth and power as governor, raised his son Ferdinand...

...For wooing his still very substantial following has become a significant factor in the struggle to control the Philippines that has been revived by the latest maneuvers of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Vice President Salvador H. Laurel, the Communists, and others less visible...

...But the widespread longing for the aging, ailing man living in Hawaii makes him a continuing threat to the new government...

...Might they, in the process, find the un-likeliest of friends in the form of Marcos himself...

...Aquino, who lastFebruary was sworn in as President for what was presumed to be a six-year term after winning the approval of ex-Marcos cohort Enrile and General Fidel V. Ramos, the Armed Forces Chief of Staff...

...You can't blame the people if they rally for him...

...Aquino, in her austere office within what was once "the premier guest house" of the former presidential residence, Malaca-fiang Palace, has tended to dismiss the demonstrators as troublemakers, focusing instead on the urgent business of economic reform and ending the Communist insurgency...

...The competition to usurp Aquino's power could lead to a three-way struggle for control of the military among Enrile, Ramos, and officers loyal to Marcos or to cronies who fled with him (especially Eduardo Cojuangco, Aquino's billionaire cousin, and sugar king Roberto H. Benedicto, both of whom left behind cadres of armed followers...