[Philippine corruption] Fighting from a Distance How Filipino Exiles Helped Topple a Dictator #3/70

Much of the print coverage of the U.S.-based anti-Marcos groups tended to spotlight prominent exile figures. Having found the freedom to speak out, to write for publication, to demonstrate, to organize openly—activities that could get their colleagues back home in trouble with the authorities—they plunged into furious rounds of organizing the resident Filipino population. They arrived as eyewitnesses, with personal experience of what martial law was like on the ground. It was not derived from the U.S. news correspondents or from the Philippine-controlled media or from secondhand accounts. They had assumed that their compatriots in the United States would empathize with their experience and respond readily to appeals for money, membership, and participation. They were shocked to discover that such was not always the case.

Anti–martial law activists who reached out to Filipino communities were met with two reactions—apathy and fear. Apathy was most pronounced among the newer immigrants. They had come to the United States to improve their prospects for a livelihood they found unachievable back in the Philippines. The first order of business was to get settled—employment, housing, education for their children—all the basics of survival in their new home. There was no room to indulge in politics, local or Philippine. Concepts of human rights, “U.S. imperialism,” and congressional authorizations of foreign aid were as distant from their minds as the wide oceans that separated their countries.

There was also the fear of getting involved. News of roundups, interrogations, and military detentions was constant. They would not want to jeopardize relatives back home once their U.S. activities were made known. A California-based Filipino weekly, the Philippine News, published the names of some 150 Filipino residents of the United States whom the Philippine government had accused of being anti–martial law activists.¹Consulates were instructed not to renew their passports. The details revealed about their affiliations with groups and organizations showed just how closely the Filipino community was being watched by the authorities back home. Indeed, the scope of the list was stunning. It showed that the government would not spare even those with the flimsiest of ties to “activities abroad which are detrimental to the national interests.” A number of people were identified simply as “reported activists.” The coded list was obtained by Consul General Ruperto Baliao of the Philippine consulate in Los Angeles. Disgusted, he resigned his post on May 18 “to protest the dictatorial policies of Marcos,” becoming the first of several high-profile defectors. The “blacklist,” as it came to be known, had been transmitted by Manila to the Philippine ambassador in Washington, D.C., on April 25 and April 26, 1973.²

Also blacklisted was Alex Esclamado, the editor of the Philippine News, which at that time was the most widely circulated Filipino newspaper in the United States critical of the martial law regime. He wrote that the list was “composed mostly of writers and editors of Filipino-American newspapers and magazines, radio announcers, student leaders and heads of community organizations.” The decoded messages to Baliao instructed him to cancel Esclamado's passport and those of “all members of his staff. Make representation with local authorities, if necessary, to get their cooperation to ensure implementation of this order and take such other steps as will compel their return to the Philippines.”³Targeting Esclamado and the Philippine Newswas a calculated move, intended to scare the larger Filipino community. The newspaper had been one of the most outspoken critics of Marcos's policies even before martial law. Its California advertisers were now being pressured by Manila to withdraw their financial support.

Baliao's defection had caused considerable furor in Filipino communities. The Philippine Newsreported that “he was regarded by…many circles here as a loyal and devoted Philippine government official.”⁴As the highest-level official Philippine representative in the city where the greatest number of Filipinos resided, his turnaround was big news as much as the blacklist. In a coordinated move to prevent any more such incidents, the Philippine government announced that it was renegotiating a package of military and trade treaties with the United States. According to Baliao, the package included a possible extradition pact—“a sword of Damocles over the heads of Filipinos in the U.S.”⁵Implicit was the threat of extradition for Marcos enemies.

In his first public address in New York City, on May 19, 1973, at the Holy Name School, Manglapus sought to dampen the fear that had spread as a result of the blacklist and the extradition threat.