Center for Labor Education & Research, University of Hawaii - West Oahu: Honolulu Record Digitization Project
Honolulu Record, Volume 9 No. 23, Thursday, January 3, 1957 p. 2
Magsaysay in Trouble with Jobless At 2 Mil.; Peso-Dollar Gap Widens
After three years in office Pres. Ramon Magsaysay from whom much was expected, has not been able to bring economic relief to the Philippines.
The number of unemployed is two million, inflation plagues the new Republic, and the Huks— weakened by internal friction and the government's military actions —cannot be conveniently blamed for the present economic plight.
K. M. Commands Support.
Despite this condition Magsaysay commands strong support from the workers and peasants. His administration that succeeds the graft arid corruption-ridden Elpidio Quirino regime has brought a greater measure of orderliness to government. For the common people the air they breathe seems fresher.
But a man's stomach is persuasive, and Sen. Claro M Recto intends to swing votes to himself in his race for the presidency this year against Magsaysay—by appealing through the voters' stomachs.
In opening his attack against Magsaysay, Recto last week declared:
"The present exchange is four pesos to one U.S. dollar so it rakes not much imagination to realize that within two months or so. It will surely be a 5-1 ratio." (The exchange ratio had been 2-1 for a long time.)
Recto also sounded off on the thorny question of U.S. bases in the Philippines which are becoming unpopular with the islanders.
The Filipinos have not actively demonstrated and clashed with US servicemen and Philippines police, but a flareup is not out of the question. In neighboring Japan (at Tachikawa) and on Okinawa, the Japanese constantly protest the use of land for U.S. bases and have clashed with the military and security police.
Talks between the U.S. and Philippines on the military bases are now recessed.
"Not Yield An Inch"
Said Sen. Recto: "And we should not yield an inch of our original position with regard to the important question of legal jurisdiction over U.S. servicemen inside the base."
In the past Recto has accused Magsaysay of being a puppet of Washington. Harboring the same view but without the harshness of Recto, many Filipinos have expected the president to coax Washington to aid the Republic.
Magsaysay wades in troubled waters. Recently it appeared that he was "going to get a substantial assist from the U.S. without strings attached. A closer look by observant politicos indicated otherwise.
A proposition from Washington came through Assistant Sec. of State Walter S. Robertson who told Magsaysay the U.S. would set up Asia's nuclear center in the Philippines.
The Manila Chronicle reported Magsaysay as saying that Robertson gave his assurance despite the strong representation by Japan and other Asian countries to get the project. The U.S. emissary hinted that $20 'million would shortly be sent to the Philippines to start the project.
But after all this, Robertson made it clear and impressed Mag-saysay that the U.S. wanted to retain all her bases in countries they are now located in until the world situation improved.
MAYOR SERGIO OSMENA JR. of Cebu City declared Dec. 14 that the Filipinos may turn Communist because of the present unemployment problem. He said the only remedy to the unemployment problem was the creation of industries to put the two million jobless to work.
EX-HUK LEADER Luis Taruc. now standing trial on charges of murdering Tarlac occupatipn Gov. Feliciano Gardiner and three other persons, told newsmen at San Fernando, Pampanga, that "Stalin-ism" made him surrender to the government in 1954.
The Chronicle reported, "This was the first indication known here that the issue of 'Stalinism,' which is rocking the communist world, has produced a schism among Filipino Communists."
The ex-Huk leader who led the once powerful guerrilla army since the Japanese occupation up to his Surrender in 1954 claimed that even before the "de-Stalinization" of the Soviet leaders, he had often Criticized the leadership of Stalin for which he was branded by the other Huk leaders as a "Titoist," ''Social Democrat," and a "deviationist."
CARLOS P. ROMULO, like Mme. Chiang Kai-shek is more popular abroad than at home. Pres. Magsaysay selected him as Philippines delegate to the UN Security Council when the Republic won that post. This appointment kicked up a storm and Magsaysay's enemies as well as friends are telling him that the choice was not only lousy but unfair. In congressional and business circles the selection of Romulo over Felixberto Serrano, Philippines ambassador to the UN, was declared an "act of justice."
It is only common humanity to feed the hungry. If our hospitals are too big, too complex, too impersonal to do these small kindnesses for the sick, something is very wrong.