BY ANTHONY IAN CRUZ

A HIGHLY influential American academic journal has published a stinging rebuke of President Arroyo, accusing her of "sinking Asia’s oldest democracy" into "a morass of corruption and scandal."

"Arroyo continues to undermine the country’s democratic institutions in order to remain in power," wrote political science Prof. Paul D. Hutchcroft of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in an analysis that came out in the January 2008 issue of the "Journal of Democracy."

Published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, the "Journal of Democracy" is a project of the International Forum for Democratic Studies and the National Endowment for Democracy.

Hutchcroft has written extensively on the Philippines, including a 1998 book titled "Booty Capitalism: The Politics of Banking in the Philippines."

In his analysis titled "The Arroyo Imbroglio in the Philippines," Hutchcroft said "in the midst of this longevity, the Arroyo administration has found political legitimacy to be elusive."

The journal’s critique follows the Philippines’ rating downgrade from "free" to "partly free" by US-based Freedom House which took Arroyo to task for over 800 unresolved extrajudicial executions.

"Over the course of her seven years in office, an already crisis-prone democracy has faced an unusually high number of travails," said Hutchcroft, who enumerated a list of political crises that have battered the Arroyo administration from 2001 to 2007.

"Arroyo very effectively wields the substantial powers of the presidency to keep herself in office, and in the process she exhibits no qualms about further undermining the country’s already weak political institutions."

He lamented that "as the Philippines suffers one political crisis after another, its longstanding democratic structures become increasingly imperiled."

In its take on the "Hello Garci," the journal said that "in retrospect, it seems that Arroyo had brought upon herself a string of presidential bad luck perhaps unrivaled since Richard Nixon decided to record his conversations in the Oval Office."

It said Virgilio Garcillano, then commissioner of the Commission on Elections, "seemingly did whatever might be necessary to guarantee a decisive Arroyo victory in May."

"The Palace then brought the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under its wing to monitor election-related conversations, including those of Garcillano (likely out of concern that he might cut deals for himself that could be disadvantageous to the administration)."

"ISAFP proceeded to tape these conversations, and the president seemingly had the misfortune of having her own conversations with Garcillano leaked to opposition figures by disgruntled military intelligence officers," it said.

The journal said the Arroyo administration then "quickly tried to shift the topic from electoral scandal to political reform," stressing it was "an effort to emphasize systemic rather than personal accountability."

Comparing the scandal to Edsa 1 and 2, it said the "Hello Garci’ crisis highlighted the legitimacy deficit not only of an individual leader but also of an entire political system."

The journal said Arroyo’s "dependence on the military, combined with her administration’s own inclination to launch a crackdown," led to the June 2006 declaration of an "all-out war" against the nearly three-decade-old communist insurgency.

Echoing the Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports on extrajudicial killings, the journal linked the deteriorating human rights situation to Arroyo’s concessions to the military top brass who help her maintain power.

It also said legal assaults on the media and killings of journalists "must be viewed as an attack on one of the major bulwarks of Philippine democracy."

‘WORST PRESIDENT’

The 15-page analysis made a passing review of post-1946 politics, especially the administrations that followed the Marcos dictatorship.

It said as the post-Marcos era enters its third decade, "the high hopes for democracy voiced in the mid-1980s have given way to disillusionment with the country’s low quality of governance."

"No other post-Marcos president has had lower approval ratings than Macapagal-Arroyo," it said, referring to 2007 survey results.

Hutchcroft said although the Philippines can "boast the oldest democratic structures in Asia, they are currently weak and lacking in legitimacy."

"Battered by scandal after scandal, these structures need careful and well-considered reform if they are to survive,’ he added.

The paper suggested, among others, wide-ranging political and electoral reforms, including a radical revamp of the Commission on Elections and the electoral system as some of the measures the Philippines must take.