Word: aquinos
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...favors, no excuses." That was the motto Corazon Aquino vowed to follow after her People Power movement toppled the corrupt regime of Ferdinand Marcos. But in the tumultuous four years since Aquino became President, charges of incompetence and graft have increasingly tainted her own government. When rebellious soldiers launched the seventh abortive coup against Aquino on Dec. 1, their most pointed complaints focused on the administration's failure to deliver basic services and on allegations of corruption among the President's wealthy and influential relatives...
...blind eye to family and friends who are said to be enriching themselves at the public's expense. "What good is a Blessed Virgin Mary if she is surrounded by Sodom and Gomorrah?" asks one disillusioned official. In a December speech after the coup attempt, even Jaime Cardinal Sin, Aquino's most important supporter, warned of "a social explosion" unless Aquino swiftly defused "unceasing reports of the abusive roles of presidential relatives...
...regain public confidence in the wake of the abortive coup, Aquino last week sacked nine of 19 Cabinet ministers in the third such shake-up of her presidency. The Cabinet changes, acknowledged press secretary Adolfo Azcuna, were prompted "by the same reasons, perhaps, that precipitated the coup." None of the ousted ministers had been accused of corruption, but some of their departments were widely considered ineffective, particularly Justice, Transportation and Education, where services had virtually broken down. Aquino also overhauled the Agrarian Reform Department, which has largely failed to deliver on her election promise of land redistribution...
...many Filipinos, however, the reshuffling looked too modest to silence claims of scandal in high places. Though many of those tales flow from flimsily documented stories in the Manila press, which now enjoys unprecedented freedom, Filipinos follow them avidly. A frequent target of reports is Aquino's brother Jose ("Peping") Cojuangco Jr., a wealthy and powerful congressman. Shortly after Aquino took office, newspaper stories charged that Cojuangco had helped some of his cronies gain control of a lucrative cargo-handling business; he is also suspected of using family ties to get jobs for friends in Manila casinos. Cojuangco has denied...
After barely surviving an attempted coup in December, President Corazon Aquino promised to take vigorous action against her foes. But with the military renegades who vied to overthrow her safely underground, she has had trouble finding an enemy to get tough with. Last week, however, the President squared off against Juan Ponce Enrile, the lone opposition member of the Senate and a Defense Minister under Ferdinand Marcos. Enrile had been Aquino's nemesis ever since their brief political alliance broke up acrimoniously in November 1986. At that time, soldiers linked to Enrile had reportedly tried to stage a coup against...