Word: mindanao
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Never in the long and turbulent history of the Philippines has there been an election campaign quite like it. In the muddy streets and squares of provincial cities and villages on the island of Mindanao last week, tens of thousands of farmers and plantation workers waited for a glimpse of an unusual political heroine, a retiring, bespectacled housewife with only nine weeks of political experience. Sometimes that vigil lasted for hours, under glaring sunshine and the occasional tropical downpour, but the crowds were quiet and uncomplaining. Finally, when the long-awaited political caravan straggled into view, the throngs invariably exploded...
...commonplace is violence in the southern Mindanao seaport of Zamboanga City that Mayor César Climaco, 68, tallied the killings on a billboard outside the municipal hall. The mayor, a leading critic of the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos, last week became such a statistic himself as he was shot in broad daylight in the center of town. The assassin escaped. Inevitably, some Filipinos blamed the killing on the Marcos regime. During the past two months three opposition figures in the south have been murdered, and many suspect that Mayor Climaco right-wing military elements were involved...
...same time, the Communist New People's Army has, in recent months, managed to field an estimated 10,000 armed guerrillas in most of the country's 73 provinces. In parts of the southern island of Mindanao, the guerrillas have organized virtual surrogate governments. Earlier this month, Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage told the House Subcommittee for Asian and Pacific Affairs that without reforms, Marcos' regime could be overthrown by the Communists "within less than a decade...
...torrent of rain. Together, wind and water left a trail of misery last week that stunned even those Asians long inured to natural disasters. Typhoon Ike hit the southern Philippine coast with gusts of over 120 m.p.h., leaving a path of destruction that reached into the northern tip of Mindanao and pummeled the islands of Cebu, Negros and Panay. The storm left more than 2,000 dead and 200,000 homeless before moving across the South China Sea to northeastern Thailand, causing several more deaths and extensive flooding. Total damage in the Philippines was estimated at $100 million...
That commission has turned up several witnesses whose accounts directly contradict the government's official explanation. But the investigation is just one of the thorns in Marcos' side. On the southern island of Mindanao and elsewhere, some of the 10,000 armed Communist insurgents belonging to the New People's Army have gathered enough popular support to operate what amounts to local surrogate governments. In the absence of financial support from abroad, moreover, thousands of citizens are destined for unemployment and hundreds of factories for closure. The coming election may only compound Marcos' woes...