MANILA : One Vote to a Customer

Free local train rides, a new gold coin, ribbon-cuttings, speeches and other ceremonies will mark the sixth anniversary today of the 1986 “people power” uprising that toppled Philippine dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and put Corazon Aquino into the presidency. But events next weekend perhaps say more of the difficulties the country faces as it prepares to elect a new president.

The Commission on Elections has assigned 5,000 Marines, armed police and military cadets to guard polling places in Makati, Manila’s chief business and poshest residential district, during a repeat effort to register voters. Massive fraud marred the last try, on Feb. 1. Similar registrations will be held elsewhere in the country later in March.