Word: pampanga
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...rather than on policies. After two years in office, "Da-dong" Macapagal is just not very lik able. Filipinos are dismayed by his lack of humor, and ridicule his do-gooder proclamations calling for "moral regeneration." He is criticized for putting all his friends from his home province of Pampanga into administration jobs, and the charge is hurtful because most other Filipinos think the people of Pampanga are idle, spendthrift and treacherous. Says a Manila businessman: "Filipinos elect Presidents for the sport of knocking them down...
Stocky and quick-smiling, Macapagal (pronounced Mock-a-pa-gahl) was born 51 years ago in a palm-frond hut in rice-growing Pampanga province, north of Manila. His first name means "God-given" in Spanish. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic who taught catechism to schoolchildren, and his father wrote poetry in the local dialect. Since poets do no better financially in the Philippines than anywhere else, Diosdado Macapagal's family was often hungry...
...mother raised pigs and took in boarders to see him through high school, and he went on to the university while holding down a minor job as an accountant. After two years, he had to quit school because of ill health and lack of money. Returning to Pampanga, he joined a boyhood friend, handsome Rogelio de la Rosa, in writing, producing and acting in Tagalog operettas patterned after the classic Spanish zarzuelas. Macapagal married his friend's sister (she died during the war, and he is now married to handsome Evangelina Macaraeg, a physician). As for De la Rosa...
From his show business experience, Macapagal earned enough money to go back to school, and soon a Pampanga philanthropist relieved him of all worry by offering to finance his education at the University of Santo Tomas. Graduating in 1936, Macapagal scored the highest grades of all candidates in the bar exams and was soon a legal assistant to Philippine President Manuel Quezon. During the war, Macapagal quit as law professor at Santo Tomas to serve as an intelligence agent with the anti-Japanese underground...
...President Magsaysay gave me the word: Bring Taruc down. For the first time, I had army clearance. Taruc set the rendezvous at Barrio Santa Maria, in the wilds of Pampanga Province, and the army agreed to suspend operations there between...