Word: aquinos
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...constitution by a vote of more than 3 to 1. When the plebiscite results were proclaimed Saturday, they showed the document had been approved by some 16.6 million votes, with about 5.2 million opposed, for a winning margin of 76%. The outcome was a personal triumph for President Corazon Aquino, who had turned the plebiscite into a nationwide referendum on her government. "We have surprised the world again," said the President. "The tremendous vote of confidence of Feb. 2 reaffirms the now unquestionable legitimacy and democratic power of our government...
Under the charter, which goes into effect immediately after the results are certified by the national Commission on Elections, Aquino will continue serving as President until mid-1992. Because the country has been without a legislature since Aquino dissolved the National Assembly in March, elections for a new 24-member Senate and a 250-member House of Representatives have been scheduled for May. The document also contains sweeping guarantees of human rights, although it has been criticized by some legal observers for adhering too closely to Roman Catholic Church dogma. For example, the charter bans abortions outright...
...Aquino's overwhelming victory was all the more remarkable because it followed several weeks of political unrest. On Jan. 22 a violent clash between soldiers and pro-land-reform demonstrators left at least a dozen dead. A week later, a tense three-day coup attempt ended when rebel soldiers surrendered. The President's margin of victory forced even her most bitter opponents to concede that it represented the popular will. "We accept the verdict of the Filipino people," said former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, who led the rightist opposition under the banner of the Nationalista Party. He added...
Only former President Ferdinand Marcos, who was prevented by the U.S. two weeks ago from returning to the Philippines from Hawaii during the aborted coup, refused to concede the plebiscite's finality. Aquino won the election, he charged, through "massive vote buying, cheating and tampering of returns...
...ominous note marred the outcome of the plebiscite for Aquino. Voters among the 250,000-member armed forces, who cast their ballots on military bases, approved the constitution by about only 60%, a far slimmer margin than was voted by the population at large. More than 50% of air force voters turned thumbs down on the document. Aquino, for her part, sought to downplay the military's lack of enthusiasm, contending that a 60% show of support still amounted to a landslide. Perhaps. But disaffected military officers have been implicated in both of the coup attempts staged against Aquino...