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Monday, July 28, 2003
Mutiny dims economic prospects: analysts
MANILA—As the country woke up to yet another coup attempt yesterday, analysts and business leaders warned it would drive away investors and leave the country’s near-term economic prospects in tatters.
The takeover of the Makati financial district by rebel soldiers is the eighth military uprising in the country in 17 years.
There was no bloodshed but there were fears it could follow the script of a 1989 coup attempt when another band of rebels turned the district of high-rise luxury hotels, condominiums and shopping malls into a bloody battleground for a week.
‘In shock’
“Even now, the business sector is in a state of shock,” Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas said. “We must remember the 1989 coup that brought down our economy to nearly zero growth—it took us several years before our economy began to recover.”
After the release of about 300 residents, including the Australian ambassador who was trapped inside the booby-trapped building overnight, President Arroyo declared a “state of rebellion” and gave the mutineers until 5 p.m. yesterday to surrender or face attack. She later extended the deadline to 7 p.m. The conflict was resolved at 10 o’clock last night.
Asian neighbors such as Thailand and South Korea also went through a period of military rebellions before discovering democracy that transformed their economies, Manila-based political analyst Alex Magno of the Foundation for Economic Freedom told Agence France Presse (AFP).
“We thought we had also gotten over this phase,” Magno said. “But this is different.”
In Cebu, Department of Trade and Industry Provincial Director Nelia Navarro expressed sadness and frustration at the actions of the alleged mutineers, saying their actions will hurt the image of the Philippines abroad and affect the entry of investments.
Department of Tourism 7 Regional Director Dawnie Roa said the best thing everyone can do is wait for developments.
“Let’s just pray for the best…In the past, there was really no serious exchange of fire, so let’s hope that it would be the same for this situation,” Roa said in a telephone interview from Manila.
Big blow
The event demonstrates the country is not capable of handling global challenges and is a “big blow to the country’s economy since it reinforces the fact that we can’t solve our own issues,” said Aldeguer Group of Companies president Jay Aldeguer.
Despite this, he told Sun.Star he expects that before the start of the week, everything would be settled and back to normal.
While the repeated coups in Manila in the late 1980s sought to change the direction of national government policies, “this is a devalued rebellion used to leverage for increased combat pay,” Magno said.
Arroyo met with a group of junior military officers last week and pledged to address their concerns over low pay, inadequate housing and alleged corruption by top brass.
Not again
“The military aspect of it we can handle,” Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said. But “the longer it takes, the more damage to the economy” is expected.
The Philippines was rocked by an unprecedented series of military rebellions in the late 1980s. The government thought it had solved the problem when it signed a peace treaty and amnestied the coup leaders in 1993.
Trade Secretary Roxas said government efforts to create jobs “will become meaningless if we cannot hold our society together.”
“We should realize that these incidents have long-term effects on our economy and society.”
Analysts said the crisis would put further pressure on Arroyo as she tried to recapture Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah bombmaker Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, who escaped from prison last week, and to revive an economy stuck in low-growth mode.
Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon said Arroyo’s priority now was to end the standoff in the shortest time possible, and to ensure that nobody gets hurt.
“If somebody gets hurt, you know what happened to Bali, which has not been able to recover up to this time,” Gordon said, referring to the terrorist blasts that claimed over 200 lives in the Indonesian resort in October last year.
“If we let this drag on, we will again become the laughing stock of the whole world,” he added. (AFP/With CTL & AEL) |
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