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That was apparent last week as Aquino gamely began tackling the job of governing. In keeping with its spontaneous beginnings, the new administration had a decidedly makeshift look about it. In the building that had served as her campaign headquarters, Aquino aides rubbed shoulders with foreign ambassadors, job seekers and influence peddlers. There, the Philippine President met with U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib, who was dispatched last week by Reagan to convey his "warmest greetings" to the new government. Outside, a carnival atmosphere prevailed. The building's small parking lot was filled to overflowing with cars, jeepneys and diplomatic limousines, as vendors sold soft drinks and snacks to drivers and security guards.
Those Marcos ministers who had not fled the country stayed at their posts until Aquino met with them and appointed her own people. The new President assured most civil servants that they could keep their jobs, but questions remained concerning changes in policy and personnel outside the bureaucracy. "This is a government that doesn't even have a typewriter," said Presidential Spokesman Rene Saguisag, 45. Indeed, it had been so long since + the last transfer of power in the Philippines--1965--that no one in or out of government knew precisely how to go about it.
Aquino's first challenge was to establish a cohesive administration, a task made difficult by Marcos' debilitating legacy of one-man rule. Mindful of the dangers of a political vacuum, she moved swiftly to show that she was in charge. During her first full day as President, she appointed 17 Cabinet ministers and held her first news conference. In an effort to defuse the impulse to seek revenge on Marcos followers, she spoke forcefully of the need for reconciliation. The President, who has frequently called Marcos the "No. 1 suspect" in the 1983 assassination of her husband, Senator Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino Jr., made it clear she would not seek the extradition of Marcos from exile, although she hinted she might reopen an inquiry into the murder. "I can be magnanimous in victory," she said. "It is time to heal wounds and forget the past."
Aquino acted quickly to fulfill one of her campaign promises. A day after her inauguration, she authorized the release of 33 of the 475 Filipinos imprisoned under Marcos' Preventive Detention Act and other statutes, laws that permitted incarceration without trial for a variety of alleged offenses, from antigovernment protest to suspected subversion.
Initially, Aquino announced that political detainees would be freed on a case-by-case basis. Those charged with spurious political offenses would be released, but Communist insurgents and those accused of violent crimes would be held for trial. That bothered many of her followers, who felt that she should show at least as much compassion for Marcos' victims as she had for Marcos. The next day Aquino ordered the release of all remaining political prisoners, subject to "certain administrative requirements." However, it was announced that four specific cases, including that of Jose Maria Sison, the 47-year-old head of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines who has been behind bars since 1977, would have to be carefully studied before any action is taken.