ABROAD

MANILA Down the Road President Corazon Aquino’s release of leading political prisoners was aimed principally at calming the Philippines’ political and military dissidents, especially the commanders of the 15,000-man New People’s Army (NPA), the Filipino Communist insurgency movement. The NPA, originally derived from the Huk rebellion of the late 1940s, operates in most of the country, but its stronghold is the big southern island of Mindanao, where it was responsible for five thousand civilian and military deaths last year. Mrs. Aquino’s government faces another menace, also in the south: Moslem secessionists, who are strong not only in Mindanao but also in the islands of the Sulu archipelago, which stretches toward Indonesia. Largely Sunni, these Moslems have recently been influenced by Islamic fundamentalism and at present receive help from a number of Arab countries, including Libya. They are split into three groups: the biggest, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), wants complete secession; the smaller Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the still smaller Bangsa Moro Liberation Front would settle for autonomy in their territories. Leaders of the two smaller groups are now in Manila for negotiations. The powerful Moslem league, based in Saudi Arabia, is said to be using its influence with the standoffish MNLF to persuade it to join them. There are other complications, such as the presence of considerable Christian minorities in the Moslem areas. Mrs. Aquino will probably employ as a framework of discussion an agreement reached in Tripoli in 1976 and supported by her late husband, Benigno, whereby the 13 Moslem-dominated southern provinces would be granted a local legislative authority, a judicial system based on Moslem codes, and the right to tax locally and raise a militia.

HAVANA Rapprochement with the Church? After 27 years of power as a Communist potentate, is there now some likelihood that Fidel Castro will reconcile himself with the Roman Catholic Church? A book entitled Fidel and Religion is being widely sold in Cuban bookstores. It was written by a radical Brazilian Dominican, Fray Betto, who held a record 23 hours of interviews with Castro. In the book, Castro explains why he thought a rigorously atheistic Communist Party was necessary in post Batista Cuba and discusses various religious influences in his life, such as his upbringing by a devout Catholic mother. He adds that religion is “not necessarily” the opium of the people and cites the Communist regime of Poland, where many individuals in the Party hierarchy are Catholics. Diplomatic observers point to other indications of a shift of attitude. Last fall Castro had an official meeting with three Cuban bishops on the eve of their departure for the United States, and he saw them again on their return two months later. He had a lengthy session with American bishops who came to Havana for a Cuban episcopal conference, and he invited two Cuban bishops to participate in the Havana conference on foreign debt in Latin America last July. The Church in Cuba has suffered considerable harm during the years of Communist rule—today, there are officially only eighty thousand communicants out of a population of ten million—and it faces competition from a number of Protestant denominations, toward which Castro has adopted a neutral attitude. Castro is also talking about a visit from the Pope, possibly in 1987, since he sees John Paul II as an important political figure. The Pope, on his side, is described here as “intrigued” by the idea of going to Cuba, although opponents of the project in the Vatican say that the trip might only serve to bestow a new credibility on Castro.

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MANILA Down the Road President Corazon Aquino’s release of leading political prisoners was aimed principally at calming the Philippines’ political and military dissidents, especially the commanders of the 15,000-man New People’s Army (NPA), the Filipino Communist insurgency movement. The NPA, originally derived from the Huk rebellion of the late 1940s, operates in most of the country, but its stronghold is the big southern island of Mindanao, where it was responsible for five thousand civilian and military deaths last year. Mrs. Aquino’s government faces another menace, also in the south: Moslem secessionists, who are strong not only in Mindanao but also in the islands of the Sulu archipelago, which stretches toward Indonesia. Largely Sunni, these Moslems have recently been influenced by Islamic fundamentalism and at present receive help from a number of Arab countries, including Libya. They are split into three groups: the biggest, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), wants complete secession; the smaller Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the still smaller Bangsa Moro Liberation Front would settle for autonomy in their territories. Leaders of the two smaller groups are now in Manila for negotiations. The powerful Moslem league, based in Saudi Arabia, is said to be using its influence with the standoffish MNLF to persuade it to join them. There are other complications, such as the presence of considerable Christian minorities in the Moslem areas. Mrs. Aquino will probably employ as a framework of discussion an agreement reached in Tripoli in 1976 and supported by her late husband, Benigno, whereby the 13 Moslem-dominated southern provinces would be granted a local legislative authority, a judicial system based on Moslem codes, and the right to tax locally and raise a militia.

HAVANA Rapprochement with the Church? After 27 years of power as a Communist potentate, is there now some likelihood that Fidel Castro will reconcile himself with the Roman Catholic Church? A book entitled Fidel and Religion is being widely sold in Cuban bookstores. It was written by a radical Brazilian Dominican, Fray Betto, who held a record 23 hours of interviews with Castro. In the book, Castro explains why he thought a rigorously atheistic Communist Party was necessary in post Batista Cuba and discusses various religious influences in his life, such as his upbringing by a devout Catholic mother. He adds that religion is “not necessarily” the opium of the people and cites the Communist regime of Poland, where many individuals in the Party hierarchy are Catholics. Diplomatic observers point to other indications of a shift of attitude. Last fall Castro had an official meeting with three Cuban bishops on the eve of their departure for the United States, and he saw them again on their return two months later. He had a lengthy session with American bishops who came to Havana for a Cuban episcopal conference, and he invited two Cuban bishops to participate in the Havana conference on foreign debt in Latin America last July. The Church in Cuba has suffered considerable harm during the years of Communist rule—today, there are officially only eighty thousand communicants out of a population of ten million—and it faces competition from a number of Protestant denominations, toward which Castro has adopted a neutral attitude. Castro is also talking about a visit from the Pope, possibly in 1987, since he sees John Paul II as an important political figure. The Pope, on his side, is described here as “intrigued” by the idea of going to Cuba, although opponents of the project in the Vatican say that the trip might only serve to bestow a new credibility on Castro.