Word: magsaysayism
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Philippines, David Jones was impressed by the earnest efforts of Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay (TIME, March 19, et seq.) to rout out the last of the Communist-led Hukbalahaps-but he wasn't much impressed by Philippine army intelligence. At the Y.M.C.A. in Manila, Jones bet a fellow boarder $100 that he, David Jones, could do better than Magsaysay's G2. He went to the flamboyant Defense Secretary and offered to try his hand at espionage. Magsaysay accepted : "You will either make good your boast or a fool of yourself...
...central Luzon town of Angeles, giving out that he was "wanted" by the army. "At first it wasn't easy," he said. "Those Huk fellows don't trust anything that's got mouth and ears. But what really clinched my story was when, by arrangement with Magsaysay, I had my hotel room raided by the army while I was right across the street talking to a Huk contact...
Back to Radio. After two weeks of it, Jones persuaded the commander to send him down to Manila for some radio gear. Once in the capital, Jones got his information to Secretary Magsaysay, who immediately sent 6,000 soldiers converging on Mt. Dortz from four sides. They routed the outnumbered Reds, destroyed 57 buildings, killed more than too, including Peregrino and Rebecca Taruc, cousin and sister of Huk Army Commander Luis Taruc. Exulted Magsaysay last week: "We have just disrupted the biggest and most active Huk regional command in central Luzon and seized what was probably the Huk army...
...second resettlement area right in the heart of Huk-infested Luzon. Said Magsaysay: "I'll, make it a model farm with comfortable beds, refrigerators and movies. It will be the show window of democracy in Hukland. It will attract the Huks like a jukebox attracts teen-agers...
According to latest government estimates, 8,000-10,000 Huk guerrillas still lurk in the Philippine hills, and enough more are joining them each day to make up for those captured or surrendered. Defense Secretary Magsaysay hopes that he can lick the Huk problem "in maybe five years." But fighting Huks-as well as giving them land-is expensive. "Only God knows," says the Secretary, "whether our government can spend $89 million every year for five years and still live...