A Letter From the Publisher: Mar. 10, 1986

This week's cover story on the Philippines' remarkable liberation from the autocratic rule of Ferdinand Marcos is only the latest chapter in TIME's decades-long coverage of the strategically located archipelago. As early as 1923 the magazine was writing about Filipino politicians and their determined agitation for independence from U.S. rule. In 1935 the U.S. granted the islands semiautonomous status, and TIME's cover story on Manuel Quezon, the first President of the Philippine Commonwealth, noted that in moving Manila toward eventual independence, the U.S. was being "far from purely benevolent": it would mean not only unloading a heavy financial liability but a...

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