TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/caps/86/86capts.5

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/                                                [««Now the Hard Part

March 10, 1986

A new President faces Communist rebels and a failing economy

The men wore loose-fitting barong tagalogs; many of the women,
designer dresses.  The formality was appropriate for a presidential
inauguration--even one called at short notice.  But the dignitaries
and affluent friends assembled at the Club Filipino in the Manila
suburb of Greenhills merely formed a splendid backdrop for the more
modestly attired guest of honor.  Clad in a simple yellow dress,
Corazon ("Cory") Aquino, 53, could hardly have imagined this moment
three months ago, when her improbable quest for the Philippines
presidency began.  Her voice was calm and steady as she recited the
presidential oath, her hand resting on a leather-bound Bible.  "I am
taking power in the name of the Filipino people," she declared.  "I
pledge a government dedicated to upholding truth and justice,
morality and decency, freedom and democracy."

Less than twelve hours later her predecessor, Ferdinand Marcos, and
his family climbed aboard four U.S. Air Force helicopters, bound for
exile after more than 20 years of increasingly authoritarian rule.
Aquino went on national television to assure the country that a great
national crisis had been resolved.  "We are finally free," she said.
"The long agony is over."

The protracted and sometimes bloody effort to oust Marcos had indeed
come to an end.  Carried by a ground swell of popular emotion and
aided by Marcos' Defense Minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Vice Chief
of Staff, Fidel Ramos, who suddenly defected to their cause,
Filipinos had mounted an essentially unarmed, democratic revolution
and, perhaps to their own astonishment, triumphed.  In a period of
only 78 hours, as his troops and tanks backed off from confrontations
with thousands of demonstrators, Marcos slipped swiftly from
undisputed one-man rule to no rule at all.  Just after Aquino took
her presidential oath, MArcos had himself inaugurated at Malacanang;
it was his last official act before fleeing to Clark Air Base, north
of Manila, and thence to Guam and Hawaii.

In a fiesta of freedom, thousands of Filipinos paraded through
Manila's Makati financial district under exploding fireworks and a
shower of yellow confetti.  On the sidewalks, vendors did a brisk
business in T-shirts emblazoned with CORY.  Car horns honked in
chorus.  Occasional placards bobbed and dipped in the crowd.
REBELLION TO TYRANTS IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD, read one.  JUST LIBERATED,
read another.  As cars crawled along teeming Ayala Avenue, men, women
and children, priests, nuns and soldiers stopped to greet each other
with a salutation that somehow captured the moment:  "Happy New
Year."

Washington closely watched the power shift in Manila, partly because
of the special relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines, a
former colonial ward, partly because of the strategic importance of
U.S. bases there, and partly because of what the White House saw as a
timely confirmation of one of its most controversial foreign
policies.  In a meeting with journalists, President Reagan argued
that the Administration's deft handling of the Philippine crisis
strengthened the case for increased U.S. aid to the contra rebels,
who are battling the Marxist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.
Explained Secretary of State George Shultz, who followed Reagan at
the briefing:  "We see in Nicaragua, much more than in the
Philippines, a government at odds with its people."  A State
Department aide put it more politically.  "We feel we're on a roll,"
he said.  "Now we want to use that momentum and apply it to the
contras."

Sweet as Aquino's victory was, the morning after for her fledgling
government came all too soon.  The triumph over Marcos may soon seem
easy, compared with the tasks ahead.  The once promising Philippine
economy is moribund.  The Communist insurgency mounted by the New
People's Army threatens large areas of the 7,100-island archipelago.
To this staggering array of ills, Aquino brings a moral force and a
popularity that will buy her the indulgence and goodwill of the
Filipino people, at least for a while.  "There are big problems in
the Philippines," said a senior U.S. State Department official last
week.  "We have always felt that only a government that enjoyed a
genuine popular mandate could effectively address them."

There is no question that Aquino, who was transformed from mere
symbol to forceful leader over the past six months, has the mandate.
What she lacks is experience in governing.  At her first presidential
conference, Aquino asked the country for patience.  "I'm going my
very best," she said.  "I only wish that people would give us time."

Such an appeal is hardly necessary as long as most Filipinos are
caught up in the euphoria of what they call liberation.  But the
confetti and adoring crowds cannot last forever.  "This government is
sincerely committed to reform," says one Western diplomat.  "But they
will learn that this is easier said than done."  There will be a
honeymoon, perhaps six months, after which 56 million Filipinos will
expect to see results from their new leaders.  "No matter how good
she is," observed Senator Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, "she is
almost incapable of meeting the expectations of the Philippine
people."  Said Ernesto Maceda, Aquino's Minister of Natural
Resources:  "There really was no forward planning for a sudden
assumption of office.  Our problems are just beginning."

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.
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 there was some speculation that hard-
line Communist insurgents and those accused of violent crimes might
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 had been behind bars
since 1977, would have to be carefully studied before any action is
taken.  Finally, at a massive rally on Sunday, Aquino proclaimed the
restoration of habeas corpus in all cases where it had been
suspended.

Questions remained about less fortunate enemies of the Marcos regime.
In a television interview, Human Rights Lawyer Joker Arroyo, 58, now
the President's executive secretary, compared the Philippines to
Argentina and its grisly legacy of "disappeared ones," the estimated
9,000 victims of military governments in Buenos Aires who
mysteriously vanished between 1976 and 1982.  "When the history of
the Philippines is known," Arroyo said, "perhaps we will beat the
record of Argentina in magnitude and torture."

Arroyo's claim is probably exaggerated, but not by much.  Task Force
Detainees, a Philippine religious organization that investigates
detentions, says that in 1985 there were 602 disappearances, 1,326
cases of torture and 276 political executions.  Last week newly freed
prisoners gave chilling accounts of confinement in Marcos' jails.  "I
experienced kicking, boxing and mauling," said Danilo dela Fuente,
36, a labor organizer who was among the first to be released.  "My
head was banged against a concrete wall.  They put a gun to my temple
and played Russian roulette.  They put it in my mouth and twisted it.
Once I was blindfolded for 17 hours, and they would whisper, 'You
will be killed tonight.'"  The new Aquino administration is
considering the establishment of a presidential commission to
investigate political assassinations and unexplained disappearances
during the Marcos era.

In selecting her Cabinet, Aquino demonstrated an understanding of
politics that impressed even her harshest Washington critics.  Except
for two Marcos holdovers--Defense Minister Enrile and Central Bank
Governor Jose Fernandez--the 16 men and one woman given ministerial
portfolios represent the spectrum of centrist opposition that
supported Aquino's candidacy.  The Cabinet has a firmly middle-class,
moderate cast that is so reflective of Aquino's own background and
political views that a reporter at her first press conference
pointedly asked whether the choices were too "elite."  The Cabinet
selections did not please the far left, which decried them as
"bourgeois," but the ministers' middle-of-the-road credentials should
appeal to the business community and the international lending
institutions on which the Philippine economy depends for recovery.
As important, Aquino's choices were widely recognized in both the
Philippines and the U.S. as competent and dedicated, a far cry from
the Marcos period, when many top positions in government went to
relatives, friends and palace cronies.

The most prominent member of the Cabinet is Aquino's Vice President,
Salvador ("Doy") Laurel, 57, a childhood friend of her husband's and
a former Marcos supporter who did not join the opposition until 1980.
Laurel was also named Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.  The
triple titles and double portfolio were largely a prearranged reward
for Laurel, who set aside his own presidential ambitions last
December to become Aquino's running mate in the Feb.7 election.  As
her part of the deal, Aquino, who had no party affiliation, agreed at
the time to run on the ticket of Laurel's party, the United
Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO).  The compromise ensured
a united opposition ticket but angered leftists, who distrust Laurel
and what they describe as his pro-American views.

Two figures close to Laurel joined the Cabinet:  Luis Villafuerte,
50, an investment banker and lawyer, who was chosen to head a
presidential commission on government reorganization, and Ernesto
Maceda, 50, also a lawyer, who received the Natural Resources
portfolio.  Both men, like Laurel, are former Marcos allies who
severed their ties with him some years ago.

For balance on the other side, Aquino chose two center-left
Assemblymen from the Pilipino Democratic Party-Laban.  Aquilino
Pimentel, 50, repeatedly jailed during the Marcos period for opposing
the government, became Minister of Local Government, while Ramon
Mitra, 58, an outspoken rancher, assumed the post of Minister of
Agriculture.  Aquino repaid debts to political independents who
strongly supported her during the bitterly contested election.  Among
them:  Jaime Ongpin, 47, the chairman of the Benguet Mining Corp. and
one of her main campaign strategists, who was named Finance Minister,
and Jose Concepcion, 54, a businessman and head of the National
Movement for Free Elections, a citizens' watchdog group, who became
Minister of Trade and Industry.

The most important carryover from the Marcos era was Defense Minister
Enrile, 62, who, with General Ramos, mounted the daring rebellion
that proved to be the catalyst for Marcos' fall and Aquino's
ascension.  Enrile's entry into the Aquino government changed the
equation of power in the ruling coalition.  The Minister is
personally popular with many Aquino backers, but his longstanding
ties to Marcos (whom he served as defense chief for 16 years) and his
own undisguised presidential ambitions make them uneasy.  They are
aware that they would not have gained power had it not been for
Enrile's defiance of Marcos, but there is resentment, even fear, of
the influence the Defense Minister may exert, particularly if the
coalition proves to be fractious.  Sensitive to the criticism, the
Harvard-educated Enrile went out of his way last week to underscore
his commitment to the new government.  "Do you think we would have
laid down our lives for a corrupt purpose?" he said.  "If these
[doubters] will give me time to show them what kind of person I am, I
will show them."

Aquino seemed less concerned than her colleagues about a long-term
threat from Enrile and gave him credit for the critical role he
played in catapulting her into office.  "I am not engaging in a
popularity contest," she said when asked about Enrile's new hero
status among many Filipinos.  Retaining the Defense Minister and
General Ramos, 57, represents both pluses and minuses for the
President.  On the one hand, they provide vital links to the 230,000-
member armed forces, which she needs to keep order and to fight the
Communist insurgents.  On the other hand, the duo's long association
with Marcos may make them suspect in the eyes of her longtime aides,
who are not totally convinced that their eleventh-hour conversion was
sincere.

Although Aquino showed personal compassion for Marcos in the interest
of national unity, she made it plain that she would spare no effort
to reclaim the vast fortune the Marcos family is believed to have
spirited out of the country over the years.  She announced the
creation of a Cabinet-level Presidential Commission on Good
Government, headed by former Senator Jovito Salonga, 65.  One of the
panel's tasks will be the recovery of an estimated $2 billion in
"hidden wealth" that the Marcos family has surreptitiously squirreled
away in the U.S. and Switzerland.  Salonga said he had already
secured counsel in New York City to block the possible sale of more
than $300 million in Manhattan properties allegedly owned by the
Marcos family.  "We will have no trouble recovering the assets here
in the Philippines," Salonga said.  "But overseas we will have to
proceed according to local law."

Though acclaimed as President, Aquino is technically head of a
provisional government.  According to Enrile, it was he who suggested
that Aquino be sworn in even before it was clear that Marcos would
leave Malacanang.  "I took the initiative because we did not
anticipate that the President would get out," he said.  "He had the
constitution.  But we had the people with us."  The scheme worked,
but it left Aquino presiding over a government that is legally
outside the constitution.  Thus early this week she is expected to
ask the Batasang Pambansa, or National Assembly, to nullify its Feb.
15 resolution proclaiming Marcos the winner of the election.  The
former President's departure has persuaded most legislators in his
New Society Movement (K.B.L.) to promise Aquino their backing.  A new
resolution recognizing her as the victor is expected to pass, but it
is questionable whether it will be valid in constitutional terms.
The snap election, which Marcos claimed to have won, 54% to 46%, was
so tainted by fraud, most of it perpetrated by Marcos supporters,
that it is now impossible to say with certainty which candidate
prevailed.

Once endorsed by the National Assembly, Aquino is likely to call a
constitutional convention to rewrite the present document,
eliminating some of its more authoritarian provisions.  The plan is
broadly supported by her advisers, even Enrile.  "We should revise
the constitution and remove its imperfections," he told TIME.  "It
was tailored to serve a regime."  One of the first provisions to go
will be Amendment 6, which granted Marcos broad decree-making powers.
Aquino pledged during the campaign to repeal the amendment or,
alternatively, to use it one last time to wipe out all of Marcos'
repressive measures.

One of Aquino's main goals during her first days in office will be to
throw some of the gears of government into high-speed reverse.  "More
than determining what government should be doing, we will attempt to
define very clearly what government should not be doing," says
Minister Villafuerte.  The language sounds Reaganesque, but in
today's Philippines, less government means greater civil liberties as
well as unfettered markets.  Aquino raised the issue of
decentralization before the election when she outlined a detailed
plan for her first 100 days in office.  Among the promises:  to
unshackle the government-controlled press, expel corrupt judges, and
repeal labor laws that permit police to order strikers back to work.

In the same speech, Aquino referred to the Philippines as the "basked
case of Southeast Asia," an unflattering but all-too-accurate
reference to the economic wasteland she has inherited.  The
Philippines' foreign debt exceeds $27 billion.  The annual interest
payment alone--about $1.7 billion--amounts to a third of export
earnings.  In 1985 the growth rate plunged to negative 3.5%, while
per capita income declined to about $600 a year, no higher in real
terms than it was in 1972.  Almost half of the nation's 21 million
workers are unemployed at least part of the year.  One of the
priorities of the new government will be to provide more jobs.

Marcos deserves much of the blame for the economic malaise.  He
vastly overspent the treasury, pumping public funds into 300
government-owned corporations, as well as flashy projects like luxury
hotels and a nuclear-power plant.  He lavished special attention on
firms owned by friends and relatives, a practice known in the
Philippines as crony capitalism.  When the companies failed, the
government rushed in with bailouts it could not afford.  By 1983 the
Philippines was so strapped it was forced to declare a moratorium on
foreign-debt repayments.  After a flurry of negotiations, the
International Monetary Fund came to the rescue with standby credits,
conditional on Marcos' adherence to an austerity plan that included
severe budget cuts.

To this bleak scenario, Aquino brings the promise of honesty and the
hope of political stability.  "One very positive feature of her
presidency," says Singapore Foreign Minister Suppiah Dhanabalan, "is
that confidence, an important ingredient of economic growth, will be
re-established."  That was readily apparent last week, when some
issues traded on the Manila Stock Exchange climbed by as much as 40%.
On the American Stock Exchange in New York City, the price of shares
in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the country's
equivalent of AT&T, more than tripled in one day.

Aquino's economic program is strongly oriented toward the free
market.  She has pledged to dismantle the sugar and coconut
monopolies operated by Marcos cronies, reduce regressive fuel and
electricity taxes, and do away with seed and fertilizer levies that
hamper agricultural diversification.  She has said she will try to
negotiate better repayment terms for the foreign debt in the hope
that export earnings will be freed to stimulate growth.  Not
surprisingly, businessmen were among her most ardent backers, and
Aquino's economic policies are certain to retain a pro-private
enterprise tilt.

In naming Harvard-educated Ongpin her Finance Minister, the President
made an especially wise choice.  Ongpin promises to be a strong voice
in the Cabinet.  Even in his first days in office, he raised hackles
among some UNIDO members by insisting that Jose Fernandez, 66, remain
as president of the Philippine Central Bank.  Ongpin's desire to keep
Fernandez, a capable and widely respected financial expert, was
eminently practical:  he was a major architect of the IMF bailout
scheme that saved the Philippines three years ago and will be a key
player in ongoing consultations on the foreign debt.

Before the Aquino government can carry out a new economic program,
however, it will have to stabilize the political situation.  Aquino
will have to neutralize remaining Marcos loyalists in the K.B.L.,
particularly the party bosses in rural areas, who rule their fiefs
like medieval warlords.  One group she probably will not have to
worry about, for the moment at least, is the left, which seemed
genuinely stunned by her success.  Bayan, a federation of 1,000
"cause-oriented" groups, joined the outlawed National Democratic
Front, the Communist Party's political arm, in boycotting the
electing.  Last week the N.D.F. criticized Aquino's Cabinet choices
but admitted in a press statement that the ouster of marcos was a
"significant victory in the Filipino people's struggle for genuine
democracy and national independence."  Bayan announced that it
planned to play a 'watchdog" role, apparently without sabotaging
Aquino's efforts.  But it was not lost on Bayan leaders that their
absence from the Aquino campaign rules out a share of the spoils.
Said one:  "If we had participated, we could have easily meshed with
Cory's organization."

The Aquino triumph is a setback, however temporary, for the Communist
guerrillas in the New People's Army, whose numbers are estimated at
between 16,500 and 20,000 armed men.  Its strength, according to
Pentagon officials, has grown 20% annually since 1983, when Aquino's
husband was assassinated.  During the campaign, Aquino often said
that Marcos, who sought a military solution to the insurgency
problem, was the N.P.A.'s best recruiter.  Her hope is to eradicate
the poverty and discontent on which the Communists build to promote
their cause.  "The N.P.A. sees that people are not willing to embrace
any kind of repressive regime, whether from the left or the right,"
says Enrile.  "Filipinos want a centrist, liberal, democratic person
in government."

In this spirit, Aquino reiterated her campaign pledge last week to
call a six-month cease-fire in the war against the N.P.A., which
caused more than 1,200 civilian deaths in 1985.  If the guerrillas
would disavow violence, she declared, she would offer them amnesty.
Said Laurel:  "Given a credible government, a democratic moral order
and a general amnesty, 90% of the people who are now fighting in the
hills would lay down their arms and come home."  In Washington, some
Philippine experts dismissed such talk as naive.  "Their plan seems
unrealistic," said Larry Niksch, director of Asian affairs at the
Congressional Research Service.  "It will take the government a long,
determined and very sophisticated effort to deal with the
insurgency."  Added one Western diplomat:  "Aquino's success
undoubtedly weakens the Communists' appeal to the so-called mass
base.  But one swallow does not a summer make."  Unquestionably,
Aquino's policy is a gamble.  If she fails to make visible progress
against economic problems, it is possible, even likely, that the
insurgency will grow.

If that is the case, military strength will count all the more.
Under Marcos' Chief of Staff, the despised General Fabian Ver, the
Philippine armed forces became corrupt, undisciplined and top-heavy
with overage brass.  Ramos, the West Point graduate and respected
professional who took Ver's place, says he plans to change that.  One
of his first acts last week was to retire 22 generals, including Ver
himself and the chiefs of the major branches of the armed services.
It was the first step in a military reform program long urged by the
U.S.  THe Reagan Administration was delighted with Aquino's choice
for Chief of Staff.  "When you talk to Ramos about the problems of
the Philippines," said a senior Pentagon official, "he can lay it all
out."

Before the election, President Reagan promised the Philippines
increased military and economic aid if the balloting was clean and
fair.  Washington intends to offer assistance to Aquino, but is not
likely to act before ascertaining details of her overall plans.  When
the time comes, however, almost any request for military, economic
and development assistance to the Philippines is certain to be well
received on Capitol Hill.

Appreciation of Aquino in Washington is relatively new.  Early on,
many in the Administration dismissed her as inexperienced.  They were
especially concerned that if elected, she would demand that the U.S.
abandon its military bases at Clark and Subic Bay Naval Station.
There appears to be little danger of that, however.  In a speech last
month before the joint Philippine and foreign Chambers of Commerce,
Aquino promised that she would consult other nations in the region
and "especially" the Filipino people before signing any new treaty.
Since then, she has repeatedly maintained that she would honor the
present agreement until it expires in 1991, and between now and then
keep her options open.  As the campaign progressed, Aquino scored
points in Washington, first for showing savvy and resilience on the
stump, then, after the National Assembly declared marcos the election
winner, for keeping her followers under control.  "It became pretty
clear that this was no ordinary housewife," said a senior State
Department official.

During Aquino's 28-year marriage to one of the Philippines' ablest
political figures, she seemed quite content to be a housewife and
mother, and she was a genuinely reluctant presidential candidate.
But she managed to channel widespread dissatisfaction with Marcos
into a steamroller campaign that in the end swept him from power.
U.S. pressure on Marcos surely helped, as did the last-minute
defections of Enrile and Ramos.  But at the center of it all was
Aquino:  petite, polite, increasingly self-assured, a woman who spoke
for a country, molding an inchoate popular movement into a winning
political force.  The base of her appeal was a quiet strength, deeply
rooted in her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church, which imbued her
with seeming invincibility.  "Ninoy you could hurt," said Teodoro
Locsin, 37, Aquino's Minister of Information, last week.  "But Cory
you cannot hurt."

Aquino had the good fortune to lead a truly democratic rebellion,
something quite different from the upheaval that ousted the Shah of
Iran in 1979 and then degenerated into a regime of religious zealots.
"This is not a revolt of the extremes," says Salvador Lopez, a former
Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations.  "This is a revolution
of the center."  For the moment, Filipinos, profoundly desirous of
change, seem content simply to celebrate their emancipation.  Says
Lopez:  "The people are happy that Marcos is gone, and that is the
main thing."  The challenge for the new President is to harness that
spirit--and with dispatch--so that she can begin to tackle the array
of problems confronting her.  Says one of her supporters:  "If Cory
continues to be mesmerized by the euphoria of so-called people power
and ignores the practical realities of politics, she will stumble
sooner than expected."  She clearly does not intend to fall into that
trap.

--By Susan Tifft.
  Reported by Sandra Burton and Nelly Sindayen/Manila

---------------------------------------------------------
"Here I Am Only Two Days and You Are Expecting Miracles"

The breathless clip of events in the Philippines last week left
President Corazon Aquino with little room for herself, both
figuratively and literally.  A steady string of tasks, from selecting
a Cabinet and ordering up various commissions to greeting diplomats
and receiving journalists, crowded her time from the moment the
marcos family fled.  Malacanang Palace proved unsuitable to receive
the stream of visitors because Marcos loyalists had seeded the
grounds with booby traps and looters had laid waste to the living
quarters.  Aquino was thus forced to continue operating out of the
Manila building owned by her family, which, with its cramped waiting
rooms, had barely sufficed as a campaign headquarters.

Clad in trademark yellow, Aquino met last Friday with TIME's Hong
Kong bureau chief Sandra Burton.  Amid constant interruptions, she
reviewed the heady days behind and the challenges ahead.  Excerpts
from the interview:

On toppling Marcos.  "I'm sure no one ever thought it would happen.
It was the people who did it.  I can't claim credit for it, but I am
very happy that I played a major role in this."

On her activities after Lieut. General Fidel Ramos and Defense
Minister Juan Ponce Enrile staged their revolt.  "The house we were
staying in was ver close to the army camp.  [My brother] Peping said,
'The sooner you can get out of this house, the better.'  They asked
me, 'Where do you think you should stay?'  I said at the Carmelite
monastery.  I got to the monastery, which was like The Sound of
Music, and these nuns welcomed me.  They said, 'Cory, you will be
very safe here, because they will have to kill all of us before they
do anything to you.'  I slept very well, considering that they had no
mattress."

On Enrile's resignation.  "This was totally unexpected.  How could I
possibly think that at some point in my life Minister Ponce Enrile
and I would be working together when all along he was the Minister
of Defense when my husband [Benigno ('Ninoy') Aquino Jr.] was
incarcerated for seven years and seven months?  All I remember of him
is each time I would go to see him to ask for some so-called
privilege for Ninoy.  This was the first time I talked to him since I
returned from Boston [in 1983]."

On Enrile's role in the government.  "At this point everything is so
delicate, and I have to be very careful about what I say publicly.
But I take it positively and a number of people agree with me.  It is
difficult for us to explain Enrile.  Yet what consoles me more than
anything else is that this unique occurrence was responsible for a
minimum of bloodshed where the civilians were called upon to defend
the military."

On conflicting political demands.  "I am getting flak from all sides.
The politicians think that I have not included enough of them; the
nonpoliticians think that I have gone back to the old ways; and the
mass public groups think I have forgotten them.  Yesterday, Bishop
Federico Escaler said, 'Cory, my goodness, you have not done anything
about the political prisoners.'  I said, 'Excuse me, Bishop.  Do you
realize I formed a committee [that includes Enrile and Ramos] to
hurry up the release of the prisoners?'  He said, 'Why did you
include those two?'  It just so happens they are part of this
government."

"I gave a lecture here the other day, and I told them, 'Look, you
people were so tolerant and so patient under Marcos for 20 years, and
here I am only two days and you are expecting miracles.'  Then last
night I talked to the nonviolent group, and again here come their
protests, and I said, 'This is all the thanks I get?  Here I am
giving my all and you people are still complaining.  Why did I go
through this exercise?  You can get somebody else.'  I just wanted to
make things clear."

On Marcos' request to remain in the country.  "At first I was told he
wanted to stay two more days, and I thought maybe he wanted to die in
his own country.  But when I found out that was not it, I said he had
to go because the longer he stays in this country, the harder it will
be for things to normalize."

On whether Marcos will be permitted to return, alive or dead.  "It is
not in the interest of this country that he be brought back.  Maybe
at a very much later date, but not now."

On foreign aid.  "I am very happy that all the ambassadors who have
been visiting me have been saying that they will come to my
assistance.  In fact, the Canadian Ambassador said that his
government will give an initial aid of $5 million in food, but they
were sending it through nongovernment agencies, which was what I was
asking for before.  I said, 'That was before, but now you can trust
the Aquino government.  Can't you give half directly to us?'  The
U.S. and Japan have told me that they will help.  West Germany also."

On her changing life.  "The problem is that we have no space in this
temporary headquarters.  This morning I had to be so unpolitical and
say, 'From now on, nobody sees me without an appointment.'  So,
friends or no friends, they have to make an appointment."

On herself.  "I told Cardinal Sin that I can no longer be humble
because people don't take me seriously then, so I have to project my
confidence, even more than most men would.  My philosophy is to do
everything within your capability and then leave the rest to God.  I
have honestly been living that way since Ninoy's incarceration.  No
one can say Cory did not give it her all."