Twenty years ago this week, the world watched as the Philippines removed Ferdinand Marcos, a dictator of brutality and legendary excess, in an eye-catching, peaceful revolt.

Nuns kneeled before tanks on the EDSA Highway, a main road through the east of Manila, Ronald Reagan told his ally to "cut and cut cleanly" and the phrase "people power" was born.

Fifteen years and several attempted coups later, on the same redolent spot, the current President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a charming, internationally-respected economist, was swept to power by demonstrations against Joseph Estrada, her democratically elected predecessor who had outraged the country with cronyism and corruption.

But even as Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, hailed "EDSA II", as it became known, as "a victory for democracy", political analysts in the Philippines questioned whether a taste for drama was threatening to overwhelm the institutions of a poor country that has always struggled to administer its 7,000 islands and 84 million inhabitants.

Over the last five years, more crises, including a military coup in 2003 and the exile of Mrs Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel, who was threatened with corruption charges, have only perpetuated the cycle of unrest.

So last summer, a new phrase, "people power fatigue", was coined as Filipino journalists struggled to describe the strange listlessness that accompanied serious charges against Mrs Arroyo, who was caught on the tape discussing plans to rig the country's general elections.

Despite calls from the hugely influential Catholic Church and Corazon Aquino, the one-time heroine of Mrs Arroyo who succeeded Marcos as President in 1986, mass protests failed to catch.

Three attempts to impeach Mrs Arroyo also stumbled in Congress, where representatives from her Lakas party overruled them on a technicality.

Rumours of a military coup were widespread, however, but even they seemed to crumble in December, when a retired general launched an abortive putsch in a social club.

The result, analysts say, is a country confused and exhausted by drama. Today's protests and the Government's claim to have dismantled yet another coup has left many questioning whether Mrs Arroyo has exaggerated the threat to secure her position and keep the streets safe at a time of year when Manila is prone to disorder.

"The Government is overreacting," said Earl Parreno of the Institute of Political and Electoral Reform, as Filipinos watched soldiers fortify the presidential palace with sandbags, shipping containers and tanks.

"In a nutshell, today is more theatre than threat," said Erin Prelypchan, a political analyst at Pacific Strategies Assessment.

"The supposed coup that the Government has foiled was not a coup. The people who were planning to break ranks with the military were just in the planning stages, there was no set date," she said. "The Government basically timed it to say that no one is going to try anything today."

Ms Prelypchan said that even today's protests, an attempt to reignite "people power", did not have widespread support. "The level of cynicism is pretty deep," she explained.

"Twenty years after the first 'people power', what has changed? People in the Philippines see the same traditional oligarchy in power, the same few families, and they say: what on earth would another people power protest bring? At the same time, they doubt an election would bring any change."

"The truth is that there is no obvious alternative to Arroyo, there isn't anything coming round the bend. So a lot of people are just staying at home today, turning off their televisions."

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