Word: aquinos
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...Augean mess left by Marcos has proved even more paralyzing in the economic sphere. Although Aquino's very presence has helped to restore the confidence of the international business community, new investments have been slow to arrive. By one estimate, the government would have to maintain a formidable 6.3% annual growth rate just to repay on schedule a fortune in foreign loans. Meanwhile, roughly 45% of the work force is underemployed, and two of every three Filipinos live below the poverty line...
...Aquino's most urgent task, however, may be to consolidate control over the military as it tries to beat back the guerrillas of the New People's Army. The President has moved briskly to restore the credibility of the military by retiring more than half the country's 103 generals and placing new commanders in all four of the armed services. But here too the government is divided. Aquino's 26-member Cabinet includes both military hard-liners like Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, the architect of martial law during the Marcos regime, and human rights activists who wish...
...ongoing struggle in the countryside remains the principal concern of Washington, which has seemed decidedly cool toward the Aquino government. On his way to meet the new President two weeks ago, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz declared, without much conviction, "Well, I assume she's in control." Nonetheless, the Administration has been increasingly impressed with the calm authority of the former homemaker, and recently pledged an additional $150 million in aid to Manila. "She's surprising us in some ways," said one Washington official. "She also seems clearly preferable to any of the alternatives." That much has been underlined...
...running her Cabinet, whose members are drawn from most shades of the political rainbow, Aquino has largely chosen to delegate responsibility. The very diversity of the group, she claims, is an example of democracy in action. But hers remains a treacherous tightrope walk. Says Leandro Alejandro, the secretary-general of Bayan, the leftist political alliance: "If she goes to the right, she will lose a lot of her popularity, but if she goes to the left, the U.S. will not stand for it. And if she fights the military, she might end up in exile...
...however, the new leader may mostly be a victim of her single great achievement: returning political freedom to the Philippines. It was Aquino, after all, who released Sison from jail, along with some 500 other political prisoners. She also permitted Marcos loyalists to protest her rule for three straight weeks in the streets of Manila. And she has actively encouraged the open questioning that Marcos so forcefully muzzled. "Less than 100 days is not enough time for a government to produce an impact," says Businessman Leonardo Alejandrino, "especially a government that almost by its own admission was not ready...