CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

142 Syndromes of Corruption
corruption, as well as over thirty charges of currency smuggling, but trial
dates were repeatedly postponed in 2004 (Aquino, 1987, 1999; Seagrave,
1988; Chaikin, 2000; Hutchcroft, 2003; Sun-Star, 2003).
Revolution or restoration?
The Marcos era ended with surprising suddenness in 1986. A presidential
election in February was apparently won by Corazon Aquino, widow of
opposition leader Benigno Aquino who had been assassinated by Marcos
operatives as he disembarked from an airplane in Manila in 1983. But
Marcos declared himself the winner despite evidence of egregious fraud,
touching off massive demonstrations in the heart of Manila. Military
leaders chose not to fire on nuns and ordinary citizens, siding with the
‘‘people power’’ demonstrators; that, and the loss of US and Catholic
Church backing, brought down the regime. President Aquino was a
powerful unifying symbol and had a prominent lineage of her own. She
dismantled martial law; Malacañang Palace, the presidential residence,
was opened to the public, who flooded in to inspect the spoils of the
Marcos era, including all those shoes. The Congress and genuinely
competitive elections were restored, and the military returned to the
barracks – in theory. But her regime was weak and unstable, facing nine
military coup attempts in its first four years. In some respects the new era
was as much a restoration of oligarchic power and corruption as it was a
democratic revolution (McCoy, 1993: 517; Moran, 1999: 580).
Marcos may have rearranged the Oligarch and Clan system in favor of
selected cronies but he had done little to change it fundamentally. Once
he was gone, there was little to restrain powerful families from regaining
or extending their influence. McCoy (1993) offers an epic account of the
rise, fall, and restoration of the Lopez family, who began with large landholdings
in the Western Visayas sugar region and built a business empire
in Manila. Relying less upon violence than presidential connections, the
family moved into the sugar-exporting, mass media, transportation, and
energy sectors as well as politics. During Martial Law Marcos moved
against the Lopez empire and crushed its principal figures, one of whom
had been his own Vice-President. After 1986, however, the Lopezes were
back – at first through the help of President Aquino, who restored many of
their industrial holdings, and later by building a new satellite-based media
empire. By the time Fidel Ramos became President in 1992, Eugenio
(Geny) Lopez, a fifth-generation family leader, was a close presidential
associate. McCoy portrays the Lopezes’ return as part of a post-1986
restoration of elite family power in a weak state (Mc Coy, 1993: 513–517;
see also Hutchcroft, 1991; Wedeman, 1997a; Moran, 1999).