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PAGE 16
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 27, 1986
of Marcos•••• If nothing else, I think I should b� given credit
for having driven Mr. Marcos from office."
In the process,
however, Aquino has alienated and worried inan�ilipinos.
Particularly vexing is the disse�within the military, which
has been cleansing its ranks in the three months since a
handful of key generals and colonels mounted the coup••••
The campaign by Pimentel, her minister of local governments, to
remove most of the mayors and governors who formed Marcos'
political machine has sparked violence in several towns and
left many key regions unstable. Insecurity at the local level
has stymied Ramos' efforts to end the insurgency.
Ramos and
Eis strategists say a military solution, alone, is not enough.
They contend that their troops have been forced to step up
military operations against the insurgent New People's Anny
because Aquino's civilian government has made no substantive
improvement in the quality of local government--one · of the
rebels' recruiting arguments.
"Not only have they done nothing to improve the goods and
services the people in the provinces are getting," a colonel
said, "but everything they've done has resulted in even more
tunnoil on the local level.
And in many cases, the people
they've put in to replace the Ma"'""rcos�mayors are wors�han the
people who werethere in tlie first place."•••--
--
Concern about the government is not confined to the military.
Behind the veneer of optimism expressed by bankers, businessmen
and potential investors,•••they have been privately critical of
the government for failing to enunciate clear economic policies
that might lure more investment to the Philippines••••
But even the most severe critics emphasize that Aquino's image
as a sincere, honest and deeply committed national leader
remains intact. This alone•••has ensured Aquino a grace period
of good will that is likely to extend beyond her deadline of
100 days.
Last week in Los Angeles, Cardinal Jaime Sin, Archbishop of Manila,
addressed the World Affairs Council. In a press conference beforehand,
which I attended, Cardinal Sin twice expressed his optimism that Mrs.
Aquino would bring the nation's economic crisis under control "because she
is a housewife" and knows how to manage money. Well, as the following
article from the March 22, 1986 ECONOMIST indicates, Mrs. Aquino is hardly
a typical Filipino housewife.
Forget about Cory Aquino being a housewife. Mrs. Aquino does
not much care for the patronising label, and for anybody trying
to understand the new president of the Philippines it is
misleading. She is a rich woman who has had the good fortune
not to bother too much about the shopping and the washing-up.
She is no more a housewife than was Jackie Kennedy, to whom in
spirit, upbringing and family ties she bears some resemblance.