As I was wandering the web this morning, I stumbled across the Internet site for the Phillipine Daily Inquirer, published in English. I've added the site to my foreign media sites that I visit periodically.
Today's edition reports that the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is threatening to impose another round of emergency powers if protests planned for May 1 (Labor Day in the Phillipines) turn into a challenge against her government. The paper reports that there is supposedly a scheme in place that calls for marches, assemblies of various opposition groups, armed assaults, and the proclamation of a new president by the end of the day tomorrow.
I have never quite understood the Phillipines. It seems to me to have an Hispanic flavor to it...but Tagalog is the native language, I believe. I'll have to look into the history of the Phillipines. A good starting place is the CIA World Factbook, which is on my personal web home page, despite my misgivings about the CIA.
Well, I have just looked and found that the Phillipines became a Spanish colony during the 16th century, which explains the Hispanic flavor. The islands were ceded to the U.S. after the Spanish-American War and attained their independence on July 4, 1946. The country has had a turbulent political history since Ferdinand Marcos was exiled after a rebellion in 1986. It's interesting to note that the recent insurgencies seem to be from Islamic groups and communists. According to the CIA, the country is 80% Roman Catholic and only 5% Muslim.
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