Word: aquinos
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...Aquino's economic program is strongly oriented toward the free market. She has pledged to dismantle the sugar and coconut monopolies operated by Marcos cronies, reduce regressive fuel and electricity taxes, and do away with seed and fertilizer levies that hamper agricultural diversification. She has said she will try to negotiate better repayment terms for the foreign debt in the hope that export earnings will be freed to stimulate growth. Not surprisingly, businessmen were among her most ardent backers, and Aquino's economic policies are certain to retain a pro-private enterprise tilt...
Before the Aquino government can carry out a new economic program, however, it will have to stabilize the political situation. Aquino will have to neutralize remaining Marcos loyalists in the K.B.L., particularly the party bosses in rural areas, who rule their fiefs like medieval warlords. One group she probably will not have to worry about, for the moment at least, is the left, which seemed genuinely stunned by her success. Bayan, a federation of 1,000 "cause-oriented" groups, joined the outlawed National Democratic Front, the Communist Party's political arm, in boycotting the election. Last week the N.D.F. criticized...
...Aquino triumph is a setback, however temporary, for the Communist guerrillas in the New People's Army, whose numbers are estimated at between 16,500 and 20,000 armed men. Its strength, according to Pentagon officials, has grown 20% annually since 1983, when Aquino's husband was assassinated. During the campaign, Aquino often said that Marcos, who sought a military solution to the insurgency problem, was the N.P.A.'s best recruiter. Her hope is to eradicate the poverty and discontent on which the Communists build to promote their cause. "The N.P.A. sees that people are not willing to embrace...
...this spirit, Aquino reiterated her campaign pledge last week to call a six-month cease-fire in the war against the N.P.A., which caused more than 1,200 civilian deaths in 1985. If the guerrillas would disavow violence, she declared, she would offer them amnesty. Said Laurel: "Given a credible government, a democratic moral order and a general amnesty, 90% of the people who are now fighting in the hills would lay down their arms and come home." In Washington, some Philippine experts dismissed such talk as naive. "Their plan seems unrealistic," said Larry Niksch, director of Asian affairs...
...change that. One of his first acts last week was to retire 22 generals, including Ver himself and the chiefs of the major branches of the armed services. It was the first step in a military reform program long urged by the U.S. The Reagan Administration was delighted with Aquino's choice for Chief of Staff. "When you talk to Ramos about the problems of the Philippines," said a senior Pentagon official...