Word: garcias
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Defeated in last November's election by Liberal Party Leader Diosdado Macapagal, ex-President Carlos Garcia had walked out of his official residence, Malacañang Palace, leaving only $9.03 in the household fund. Eventually, the Treasury will allocate new funds, but until then, the curtains will remain uncleaned or the cost will be met by the President himself. Macapagal intends to account for every penny, at home and in the government. After his victory Macapagal announced that it was his "duty to set a personal example in honesty and uprightness...
Manila has heard such fine words before, even from Garcia, whose cronies had systematically plundered the country's resources and sold favors to the highest bidders. Cynics wondered whether Macapagal's first moves were only part of a pose-he put up for sale Garcia's $2,500,000 presidential yacht Lapn-Lapu and his twin-engine Fokker turboprop plane, canceled the traditional inaugural ball to mingle with the tao (common people) at an outdoor dance. During his first month in office he began to convince the country that he meant to keep his pledge...
...epidemic reached the Philippines last September. Elpidio Valencia, then Health Secretary, correctly identified it as "choleriform enteritis caused by a vibrio (bacillus) called El Tor," which he less soundly defined as a "mild" form of cholera. A presidential campaign was in progress, and the regime of President Carlos P. Garcia was anxious to downplay any threat to the nation's health...
Philippine politics gets much of its murderous passion from the compadre system, under which politicians adopt the offspring of their constituents as godchildren. Top politicos like Macapagal and Garcia are compadres to hundreds of peasant families who eagerly give their services as bodyguards, precinct workers, fund raisers and propagandists as well as voters. In return, the politicians are expected to keep their adoptive kinsmen out of jail, find places for them on the national payroll. For the country as a whole, the compadre system usually means blood feuds and built-in graft...
...week's end even a defeated Garcia ally conceded that "this election proves that when the people feel a change is necessary, it can and will take place peacefully." And General Campo spoke for many of his countrymen in stating proudly: "I'd say that the good state of peace and order indicates the growing political maturity of the Filipino people...