January 19, 2001

12:40 AM

Revolution in the Philippines!The Secretaries of Defense and Finance, the National Treasurer, and the entire administration of the Armed Forces have joined the giant People Power Rally II in the streets to bring down the corrupt Estrada administration.
posted by lia (10 comments total)

This development comes as no surprise because the American news media has done an excellent job of keeping me informed of international news and cares that I be a responsible citizen of the world.
posted by fleener at 6:10 AM on January 19, 2001

whoa, hey my parents are going over in a few weeks. wish i could go, too. as an aside, the wall street journal has said the people power this time around is more aptly named "plutocrat power." it's all about the exchange rate.
posted by kliuless at 6:15 AM on January 19, 2001

My wife has been in support of this for quite some time, being from the Philippines. She often points out that they could have been Japan, had their government leaders not always been so corrupt. Glad to see that once again the people are trying to make changes. Hope it lasts this time.
posted by jdiaz at 6:36 AM on January 19, 2001

the philippines also had the option of becoming part of the states way back when. they could have been the next hawaii :)
posted by kliuless at 6:51 AM on January 19, 2001

AndEstrada seemed so nice a few years ago....
posted by Markb at 7:02 AM on January 19, 2001

It's not quite revolution, yet. They're halfway through an impeachment trial. The cabinet has broken with him and if he resigns a constitutional succession will occur. If he doesn't resign the impeachment will proceed and may convict.

At least he actually did something.
posted by dhartung at 9:02 AM on January 19, 2001

kliuless - I'm pretty happy not being part of the next hawaii thank you very much. And fyi, the philippines never had that option because the United States never intended for it to become part of the states. The Filipinos were never granted the option of becoming citizens, only nationals (which is a subcitizen group).

Markb - Estrada never seemed nice. The day he was elected president was the beginning of the end; it was just a matter of time before he did something illegal that he couldn't hide.

And it's really sad that everyone knows he's guilty but are letting him go because of a technicality.
posted by Mllebleu at 11:23 AM on January 19, 2001

Mllebleu: I think you missed the joke in Markb's comment. I believe he was referring to Erik Estrada.

It's very sad that it seems the Philippines keep getting dumped on by their leaders. It's such a cool country with so much potential.
posted by jdiaz at 11:31 AM on January 19, 2001

My apologies to Markb. I did miss the joke. I guess because it's a subject too close to home, I reacted to strongly. Thanks to jdiaz for pointing it out.

I do agree though that it's really such a shame the way a good country can go bad because of bad leadership. If you look at the history of the country, you'll see so much mismanagement along the way (and the American colonists aren't exempt from blame either). I love home and I wish home were a more pleasant place to be. Hopefully sometime in the next 10 years.
posted by Mllebleu at 7:24 PM on January 19, 2001

Mllebleu, I don't want to minimize the actions of either Estrada or anyone closer to most reader's home, but I don't think it's good precedent for countries to go around jailing former leaders. It's just too easy to quid pro quo something like that.

Better to send them on their way and let some other industry deal with their sticky fingers.
posted by dhartung at 1:22 AM on January 20, 2001