Word: magsaysay
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Fortunately for the Philippines, a hero arrived in the form of Ramon Magsaysay, a tall (5 ft. 11 in.), tough blacksmith's son from Zambales province, who took over as Defense Secretary in 1950. A principal backer in the Cabinet reshuffle: Freshman Congressman Ferdinand Marcos. Magsaysay tackled the Huks with double-barreled dynamism: his green-clad, rubber-booted troops rooted them out of the Luzon jungles and killed them without quarter; defectors were offered land in islands not infested by Huks. By 1954 Magsaysay had quelled the Huks, and won himself the presidency. Then in 1957, Magsaysay died...
Foul Shape & Fair. Magsaysay had gone a long way toward curing the Philippines' ills before his untimely death. His successors, however, were either uninterested in putting an end to graft and lawlessness or simply did not have the strength to cope. Ferdie Marcos did. As the youngest Liberty Party Congressman ever elected, his name was attached to legislation that ranged from civil rights to land reform. Off the floor, Bachelor Marcos had a reputation as a sportsman and Lothario: when he wasn't blasting quail and ducks with his 20-gauge Browning over-under, he was breaking hearts in Forbes...
Singing with Imelda. After Magsaysay's death, Marcos felt that he was in line for the vice-presidency on the Liberal ticket. It went instead to Diosdado Macapagal, who won the presidency in 1961. Embittered and disgusted with Macapagal's inability to cope with the nation's ills, Marcos in 1964 decided to shift his loyalty from the Liberal Party to the opposition Nacionalistas?a maneuver common in Philippine politics. The Nacionalistas could not have found a better man to lead their party against Macapagal in the 1965 elections...
...Call for Heroes. Marcos' inaugural speech sounded a refreshing tone that had been missing from the Philippines since Magsaysay's death. "The Filipino has lost his soul and his courage," he said. "Our people have come to a point of despair. Justice and security are as myths. Our government is gripped in the iron hand of venality, its treasury is barren, its resources are wasted, its civil service slothful and indifferent. Not one hero alone do I ask, but many...
Manila once hoped that the Huk insurgency had been pretty well wiped out after President Ramon Magsaysay's intense four-year campaign of pacification and resettlement ended in the mid 1950s. But in the past few years, as government control has waned in Luzon, Huk influence has slowly reasserted itself. One mayor now claims that 80% of his home province of Pampanga has fallen under Communist control, and that nearly half of the area's 22 mayors are either Communists or Communist sympathizers. If these figures are somewhat high, Marcos himself puts Huk strength at 250 hard-core...