Word: manila
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Marcos faced the same Chambers of Commerce in Manila the day after Aquino, but his reception was markedly tepid. The President attacked his opponent for naively believing that the country's Communist insurgents would lay down their arms in response to a six-month cease-fire, which is part of her campaign platform. But even though Marcos announced that he would, among other things, cut sales taxes and reduce domestic oil prices, applause from the business audience was merely polite...
...Filipinos thronged to their polling stations, problems with voting registries began to crop up almost immediately. At the Araullo High School, a rambling wood- and-concrete structure on United Nations Avenue in midtown Manila, Policeman Oligario Remiruta, 46, lined up to cast his vote. The local poll chairman could not find Remiruta's name on the voters' list. By noon, 84 people at the school had received the same treatment...
Other peculiarities cropped up. In the Manila dockside slum of Tondo, teachers at the Imelda Marcos Elementary School complained that they were being asked to recruit ten voters each for Marcos. Well before the voting began, Marcos operatives in northerly Quezon City were openly offering indigents money to fill out their ballots in advance...
Nonetheless, both Marcos and Aquino were ready to declare victory. As he prepared to fly from Manila to his hometown of Batac in the northerly province of Ilocos Norte, the President declared that "if the difference is only 3 million (votes), I'll be disappointed." Aquino voted in her hometown of San Miguel, in the southern province of Tarlac. Said she: "Today is my day. I hope to see you all at my inaugural...
...weekend wore on, the situation in Manila remained surprisingly calm. Since Marcos had hunkered down in the presidential Malacanang Palace, it seemed that it might be up to the opposition to make the next move to break the election deadlock. Aquino's first step in that direction was a mild one. On Saturday she called a press conference to demand that Marcos concede "in the best tradition of democratic politics." Three hours later, the President held a press conference of his own to reiterate his claim to victory, by a new margin of 1.5 million votes. He reminded journalists that...