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Marcos has been running for re-election ever since he took office in 1966. Concentrating on urgently needed domestic programs, he built 8,000 miles of roads, which was more than the total road construction in the country's history. He also put up 43,000 school buildings and irrigated 300,000 hectares of land. He showed his keen appreciation of the impact of a peso well spent. In his first year in office, he pushed for the passage of a local improvement fund of more than 200 million pesos (about $50 million). He got the measure passed by Congress in his second year, but did not hand out the money until this year. Then he parceled it out to barrio or ward captains in 2,000-peso lumps just before the election.
Cultural Contact. Barred by law from seeking a third consecutive term, Marcos has the next four years in which to fulfill another ambition: securing a place in Philippine history. Though a friend of the U.S., he feels that Filipinos must find their own place in Asia. Marcos will soon begin to renegotiate U.S.-Philippine trade and military agreements; perhaps anticipating his action, the U.S. last week announced that it would close Mactan air base in the central Philippines. He also hopes to expand his country's economic and cultural contacts with Communist nations. Most of all, he wants to encourage a sense of regional interdependence in Asia. Says Marcos: "I'm looking forward to an Asian forum to get Asians together to try to find Asian solutions to our problems."
At home, Marcos hopes to continue his public works program, rein in the island's growing lawlessness, curb its widespread corruption and lower the high birth rate, which is adding 1,300,000 people each year to the 38 million population. He must also shore up a shaky economy, possibly by devaluing the peso. Because funds are running out, Marcos will become the first allied president to pull forces out of Viet Nam. In December, he intends to bring home the 1,500-man Philippine civic-action group. He will put the men to work in the impoverished central Luzon, where the Huk guerrillas still remain troublesome. No longer the fiery Communists that they were in the insurrection of the 1950s, the Huks have turned to Mafia-style extortion, which Marcos hopes he can counter with a program of better law enforcement and increased hopes for a better life.