The Triumph of the Trapos

Abstract

By the middle of 1989 it was clear that the old politics had triumphed. Aquino’s popularity had slipped to 35 percent approval, according to a “Social Weather Station” survey, down from 77 percent a year earlier.² Put another way, the “margin of satisfaction” with her rule, measured as the percentage “satisfied” minus those “unsatisfied,” had gone from +58 percent in February 1988 to +22 percent in August 1989.³ For the opportunistic vice president, Doy Laurel, the margin had gone in the same period from a mere +16 percent to a −18 percent among ABCs. Where there are losers there must be winners: General Eddie Ramos stayed high—around two thirds—among all groups in the same period.

“Trapos” is an abbreviation of “traditional politican” used in the Manila press; but it is also a Spanish word meaning “rags you wipe up filth with,” as a letter writer to The Economist pointed out, in reference to the Philippines (21 July 1990, p. 4).