The Philippines: Surprise in Manila

THE PHILIPPINES

The Philippines' presidential elections were expected to be the closest in the islands' history. Certainly the campaign had been the longest, costliest and most frantic. For an entire year, President Diosdado Macapagal, 55, the Liberal Party's choice for reelection, had swapped bombas (personal attacks) with the Nationalist Party challenger, Senate President Ferdinand Marcos, 48. In addition to bombas, Macapagal and Marcos spent $8,000,000, a princely sum in Filipino politics, to swamp the country with a deluge of political pamphlets, placards, and tear-jerking biographical movies. But last week, as 8,000,000 Filipinos...

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