JACKALS IN MARCOS TIME

The opponents of Marcos were soon being wined and dined in Washington, by both the right wing (Shultz and Wolfowitz) and the left wing (Rep. Stephen Solarz, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Princeton's Richard Falk) of the "Project Democracy" apparatus, which performed the subversive tasks assigned by the synarchist banking institutions. 

Salvador Laurel, the son of the quisling President of the Philippines under the Japanese occupation, headed the opposition after Aquino's assassination, and in February 1984, visited Washington, where he was greeted by Vice President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State Shultz. Representative Solarz introduced legislation into the Congress to abdicate the treaty regulating the U.S. bases in the Philippines, cutting the agreed aid to the Philippines by two-thirds. At the same time, a nest of anti-nuclear and anti-development NGOs in the United States took up the cause of overthrowing the "Marcos dictatorship," including a gathering of anti-nuclear forces in Manila, including Richard Falk and representatives of the West German Green Party. Stephen Bosworth, a close collaborator of Henry Kissinger, was appointed Ambassador to the Philippines, and from that position he would subsequently orchestrate the coup against Marcos.

By October 1984, the Philippines was forced to submit to an IMF refinancing package that included an end to price controls on rice and other staples, a float of the peso, unrestricted foreign exchange speculation, import reductions, domestic austerity, and yet another devaluation—making a total of a 63.3% devaluation in one year, nearly doubling the cost of financing the foreign debt. Ironically, the opposition, fully supported and sponsored by the IMF-related institutions, rallied support among the population by denouncing Marcos for "acceding to the oppressive conditions of the IMF."

Throughout 1985, President Ronald Reagan defended the American relationship with the Philippines and with President Marcos, despite the fact that Secretary of State Shultz and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz openly disagreed with that assessment, instead demanding Marcos's head. The crisis came to a head in July 1984, when the U.S. Congress adopted the Solarz proposal to rip up the Bases Agreement, not only slashing the financial commitments, but insisting that the remaining aid be distributed not by the Philippine government, but by the Church, which, under Cardinal Jaime Sin, had openly called for insurrection against the government.

By November, the plans for insurrection were unveiled publicly, as the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the home of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brezezinski, carried out a "war game" against the Philippines, based on a scenario in which President Marcos is assassinated, Soviet "spetsnaz" commandos join the New People's Army in taking over the Philippines, and the U.S. military goes into action to "save" the country.

The CSIS's work in Asia was largely financed at that time by the C.V. Starr insurance empire, run by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Greenberg and C.V. Starr owned most of the insurance industry in the Philippines, and a number of Philippine politicians as well, and served as the crucial "on the ground" economic hit man in the Marcos coup.

Marcos continued fighting for the principle of a new world economic order. In November 1985, EIR and the Schiller Institute, the international association directed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, invited Gen. Edgardo Mercado Jarrin (ret.), the head of Peru's Institute of Geostrategic and Political Studies, to tour Asia, promoting the partial moratorium on foreign debt then being implemented by the Peruvian government. In addition to conferences in Thailand and India, General Mercado Jarrin and the EIR/Schiller Institute delegation met with President Marcos in Manila. Marcos told the delegation: "Third World Asian and South American countries should get together and push through the condonation of part of their loans. How can Third World countries pay their loans, amounting to $900 billion?" Marcos estimated that the paying capacity could not exceed $300 billion.

The Aug. 16 EIR published a story entitled "Plotting the Fall of an American Ally," which reported that U.S. Ambassador Bosworth was plotting a military coup against the Marcos government. The article reported: "Bosworth now meets up to two hours every day with Acting Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Fidel Ramos, a West Point graduate whom the United States is attempting to groomn as a leader of a new civilian-military junta, despite his loyalty to President Marcos." The story was based on information from reliable sources both in the Philippines and in Washington, where certain patriotic layers within the government, intelligence, and the military did not accept America's transformation into an imperial power serving the synarchist financial interests.

The EIR exposée forced a public denial by General Ramos and by Ambassador Bosworth. As events proved, the warning was deadly accurate.

Marcos was finally coerced by Washington into calling new elections for February 1986, even though the Constitution mandated elections only in 1987. The opposition, in constant coordination with U.S. Ambassador Bosworth and the Shultz State Department, chose to run Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, as the Presidential candidate, with Laurel for Vice President.

As still seen today in such neo-con-controlled "people's power revolutions," such as in Georgia and Ukraine, U.S. intelligence agencies financed and controlled the "citizen" electoral monitor organization, the National Movement for a Free Election (Namfrel), and prepared to declare "vote fraud" if the election did not go the way intended. Paul Wolfowitz in November 1985 told the U.S. Congress that there would be a "complete collapse of political confidence" if the elections were not perceived as "fair"—i.e., if Marcos were not defeated.

Indeed, on election day, the opposition was ahead in the early returns from Manila—which was expected—and Aquino was instructed to declare herself the winner. However, when the rural votes came in, where Marcos was still loved for the development he had brought to the nation, Marcos overtook Aquino and won the election.

In an astonishing public admission, former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines William Sullivan (who had also been Ambassador to Iran when the Shah was overthrown by similar means in 1979), told CBS News on Feb. 9, two days after the Philippines election: "The facts as they emerge are becoming increasingly irrelevant, because it's the perception that prevails both in the Philippines and, I think, internationally, that Mrs. Aquino won the election as far as the polling places were concerned, but the government, in the tabulation, changed the vote counts."

As EIR had warned, General Ramos then led a military revolt against President Marcos, calling for crowds to surround the military base in the center of Manila, to create an image of "people's power," while the masses of the population were disenfranchised by the overthrow of their elected President. By the end of February, President Reagan had been convinced by Shultz to give up his defense of President Marcos, and endorse the military coup; Marcos and his family were sent to Hawaii.