Ex-Marcos Foe Still Struggling : He's Free, but Economy Now Holds Him Captive

By MARK FINEMAN

June 30, 1986 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

MANILA — The two-room house at 7 Flores St. is not much bigger than the prison cell where Reynaldo Maclang spent six years of his life.

The house belongs to Maclang’s mother, and it is home not only to Maclang but also to a dozen members of his family. It is something of a symbol of the limitations of Maclang’s liberation--indeed, the liberation of the Philippines’ 54 million people. And the limitations are part of the legacy of the man responsible for Maclang’s years in prison.

Maclang was a political prisoner, convicted of plotting to overthrow President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1979. Since February, when he was freed by President Corazon Aquino, he has filled the tiny house with objects that reflect his hopes for the future.

He has invested 10,000 pesos ($500) in four ancient sewing machines, purchased with a loan at 72%-a-year interest, and set up a handbag factory. For staff, he has taken on his out-of-work brothers and sisters.

If Maclang is lucky, he may break even by the end of the year.

Father of Four

This is the economic reality faced by many Filipinos in the financial ruins that Marcos left behind when he fled to Hawaii in February. It is even worse for Maclang, 34, a father of four who was deserted by his wife while in prison, and for hundreds of other former political prisoners.

As Maclang said in an interview, he and other political prisoners “offered our lives fighting for freedom and justice in this country. Many of us lost almost everything in that struggle. The only thing I have left to offer now is my own person. . . . And sometimes it seems that is not enough.”

Some of the former political prisoners have fared better than Maclang, who was reared with 12 brothers and sisters in a Manila slum on the $100 a month that his father earned as an electrician.

Many of the other ex-detainees who were freed by Aquino amid national fanfare and celebration two days after Marcos fled are better educated and from wealthier families, which have supported them in the months after their release. One of Maclang’s cell mates is now an account executive in his father’s advertising firm. Another is teaching computer courses at a vocational college.

On Lecture Circuit

Other former prisoners are better off because of their prominence in the protest movement that helped drive Marcos from power. Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, has been making a living on the lecture circuit since his release. Sison has also started a leftist political party, and he was appointed to the commission that is drafting a new constitution for the Philippines.

But Maclang, who was convicted on specific charges of rebellion, sedition and plotting the assassination of Marcos and his wife, Imelda, is far more typical of today’s average Filipino. Most of the people in this country are either unemployed or underemployed, struggling with a still-corrupt economic system.

For Maclang, the months of freedom have been an education. His assessment of the new Philippines under the fledgling Aquino government: “With this new-found freedom, there is room for improvement, for change. There is the opportunity for the people to work for improvement. But there is a great deal of work to be done.”

Maclang’s education began with the release, on Feb. 27, of political prisoners from the Bagong Diwa military prison on the outskirts of Manila.

“For a period of about a month and a half, I roamed around,” Maclang recalled. “I was sort of a celebrity. The people who had remained on the outside all those years congratulated me and thanked me for all I had suffered.

“That was very consoling, but it died down. I realized I had to get on with starting some business, with starting my life again.”

Little Capital

Maclang said he wanted to experiment with the concepts of economics and employee management that he had developed during his years in prison.

“I wanted to try to see for myself,” he said, “the effectiveness of giving shares to my employees, trying innovative profit-sharing plans and applying all the pro-labor concepts Marcos fought against for 20 years. If we do not begin implementing these concepts and helping the worker, who has been so long oppressed, then communism eventually will take over in the Philippines.”

All Maclang needed was capital--what the entire country needs in its economic recovery effort.

He approached a banker, a personal friend, and asked for a “character loan.”

“The only collateral I could offer,” he said, “was my life.” But the banker refused. It was against bank policy.

So Maclang was forced, he said, to scale down his proposed venture from a cooperative for unemployed electricians, plumbers and other tradesmen to the two-room, family handbag factory in his mother’s house.

But still no bank would lend him start-up capital. So Maclang turned to the illegal usurers who flourish in the Philippines and who lend money at interest rates of up to 120% a year. The legal limit is 14%.

In his months of freedom, Maclang says, he has seen many instances of corruption. He says he has seen policemen shake down the drivers of Manila’s omnipresent “jeepneys”--small buses converted from jeeps--and he suggested to the drivers that they report this behavior to the authorities.

“Unless we eliminate corruption, which is so deep in our system, we will never recover as a nation,” he said. “And if the public will not cooperate, then graft and corruption will continue. We should not as a people or a country put the entire burden on the leadership of the country. The people have to contribute.”

Still Optimistic

It is in this context, he said, that he judges the performance of President Aquino and her Cabinet. But unlike many critics in the news media and in opposition political parties, including many of his fellow former prisoners, Maclang remains optimistic.

“I want to give this government a chance to prove itself,” he said. “I don’t think this is the time yet to fault or criticize the government. While it is true that the government is committing some mistakes, they are understandable because of the problems the government inherited from Marcos.”

Among the mistakes, Maclang said, is the way that Aquino’s advisers have approached cease-fire negotiations with the Communist Party and its guerrilla forces. The guerrillas are engaged in a rebellion that has cost thousands of lives over the past 17 years.

Maclang said he knows the Communist Party leadership. Saturnino Ocampo, the Communist leader named as the rebels’ representative for proposed peace talks, was a prisoner with Maclang for nearly five years.

“Cory (Aquino) is very sincere in her call for reconciliation,” Maclang said, “but I have doubts as to the sincerity of the left. I doubt it very much. They have been in this fight for so long a time. They really want to change the whole system, the entire structure of government, not just the leaders. And they believe you cannot change a system through peaceful means.

“For the Communists to give up, it would take the sharing of power only. When they get some power, they will then force the moderates from power. I just fear that through this peace process, all they will be doing is looking for a way to take advantage. Even in the prison, when they asked for something, they were only looking for a way to use it to their advantage.”

Lengthy Struggle

Despite this view, Maclang continues to be optimistic--and committed to helping the new government overcome its obstacles.

Standing in the tiny room where his sisters and brothers were furiously sewing handbags, beneath a wall poster that bears the words “Obstacles Are What You See When You Take Your Eyes Off the Goal,” Maclang conceded that any real change in Philippine society is likely to take years.

“Filipinos are very patient people,” he said. “We were willing to give Marcos 20 years. I am willing to give Cory a chance for the next six years. I believe in her capacity and her sincerity.”

He paused for a moment and added: “But if something happens--if she goes, or if she changes--well, then maybe I’ll be in jail again.”