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Imelda joined him on the campaign; the two sang duets and applied her corn-padre family connections on his behalf. The Marcos-Macapagal encounter produced some of the fiercest infighting ever seen in a nation that averages 60 murders every election. Macapagal's supporters spread rumors that Imelda had posed in the nude for magazines and blue movies; Marcos accused Macapagal of everything from corruption to ineptitude. When the votes came in last November, Marcos had won by 660,000 votes, out of a total of 7 million.
A Call for Heroes. Marcos' inaugural speech sounded a refreshing tone that had been missing from the Philippines since Magsaysay's death. "The Filipino has lost his soul and his courage," he said. "Our people have come to a point of despair. Justice and security are as myths. Our government is gripped in the iron hand of venality, its treasury is barren, its resources are wasted, its civil service slothful and indifferent. Not one hero alone do I ask, but many."
From the standpoint of the U.S., Marcos' concern was well-founded. The issue in the Philippines was neither ideological nor anti-American: both candidates had been pro-American. Here it was a question of character, personality and ability, and Washington left no doubt that Marcos was favored. In his ten months of command, Marcos has already defined and come to grips with the major problems outlined in his inaugural. Manila is overcentralized: the bulk of the nation's nascent industries (oil refineries, cement factories, textile mills, steel mills) are clustered around the city. Only half of the Philippines' 38,000 miles of roads are in drivable condition, and the Bureau of Public Works estimates that 5,400 miles more are needed to give the nation a minimal service network. Telephones are rare—and even more rarely do they work. Travel is sheer adventure, and the only vehicle that can negotiate the muddy tracks of the bundoks (the Tagalog origin of the American boondocks) is the groaning carabao.
Tuberculosis and pneumonia still kill the bulk of Filipinos; teachers are in surplus in Manila, in short supply in the countryside. With 70% of the population engaged in subsistence, peasant-style farming, the average annual income is a scant $140 a year—far less than that of Japan and Formosa. Population growth is among the world's highest: Catholic-dominated Filipinos add 1,000,000 mouths a year to the rice bowl (3.2%). Simultaneously, the economic-growth rate is a minimal 4.2% . The rice yield is scandalously low. Of the world's top 20 major rice-producing nations, the Philippines rank ahead of only Cambodia, Laos and Nepal.
Rugged IR-8. Marcos has taken the first steps toward defining and defeating these problems. His new Four-Year Plan, which won $21 million worth of support from Washington last month, envisions self-sufficiency in rice and corn production by 1969. His expedients: a combination of improved irrigation systems and more fertilizer plus such superior strains of rice as the rugged IR-8, developed by the Rockefeller Foundation (TIME, Oct. 7) at the rice institute at Los Baños.