Word: corazon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When Philippine Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin returned to Manila last month after 27 days of tough bargaining in New York City, he was jubilant. With reason: the patrician Ongpin had won an impressive new financial deal from U.S. and foreign bankers for the still struggling government of President Corazon Aquino. Payments on nearly half of the country's $28.2 billion foreign debt had been rescheduled at interest rates nearly 40% lower than the banks had originally demanded, saving about $1 billion. Ongpin had also won approval for a novel method of turning some of the remaining interest into badly needed...
...answer, alas, is many. Last week a tough-talking Corazon Aquino symbolically snapped the olive branch of peace she had extended to the Communist rebels throughout her 13-month presidency. "Police and military action, not social and economic reforms, is the immediate solution to terrorist acts," she told an audience at the Philippine Military Academy. Earlier that day she had pledged to "smite the foe on the left and the right." Said Aquino: "I want a string of honorable military victories." Her speech represented a dramatic shift in tactics aimed at ending both the 18-year Communist insurgency and coup...
...great hope of Corazon Aquino's ascension to power was that the Communist insurgents might heed her plea to disarm and join in the rebuilding of Philippine society. That hope got a lift when the Communist New People's Army agreed last December to a 60-day cease-fire, a first for the 18-year-old rebel insurgency. But the truce broke down last month amid bitter charges and countercharges. The Ministry of Defense estimates that at least 350 people have died since the fighting resumed. The violence often plays out in a lethal tit for tat. Last week, after...
...later charged that seven civilians had been massacred by government troops during the clash. By week's end, the unofficial death toll had grown to more than 70, including 41 civilians. With each new report of violence, any hope of reconciliation between the rebels and the government of President Corazon Aquino all but disappeared. Declared Aquino: "The truce is over...
...constitution by a vote of more than 3 to 1. When the plebiscite results were proclaimed Saturday, they showed the document had been approved by some 16.6 million votes, with about 5.2 million opposed, for a winning margin of 76%. The outcome was a personal triumph for President Corazon Aquino, who had turned the plebiscite into a nationwide referendum on her government. "We have surprised the world again," said the President. "The tremendous vote of confidence of Feb. 2 reaffirms the now unquestionable legitimacy and democratic power of our government...