The Mature People

In the Philippines last week, 6,500,000 voters went to the polls in a national election full of surprises. Biggest surprise: the election as President, by a plurality of 600,000, of the Liberal Party's underdog, Diosdado Macapagal (see box). The victor not only defeated incumbent President Carlos Garcia, 65, but routed Garcia's well-organized Nacionalista Party machine, which has ruled through a judicious mixture of organization and money. Macapagal carried with him his running mate, ex-Senator Emmanuel Pelaez (the President and Vice President are elected separately), and Liberals also won six of the eight contests for the Senate.

Fabulous Jewels. Bread-and-butter issues won for the Liberals. Macapagal relentlessly charged the Nacionalistas with responsibility for high prices, abuse of office, nepotism and graft. "Mrs. Garcia owns the most fabulous set of jewelry in Southeast Asia!", he told newsmen in an interview; he labeled the Garcia regime the "most corrupt" in Philippine history. The government's own figures supported the charge of corruption: an official report lists 29,717 cases of administrative graft, of which 10,869 resulted in convictions, 5,563 in acquittals, and 13,285 pending.

The second, and most gratifying, surprise was the lack of bloodshed at the polls, since during the campaign no fewer than 22 people had been slain in clashes between Liberals and Nacionalistas.

Philippine politics gets much of its murderous passion from the compadre system, under which politicians adopt the offspring of their constituents as godchildren. Top politicos like Macapagal and Garcia are compadres to hundreds of peasant families who eagerly give their services as bodyguards, precinct workers, fund raisers and propagandists as well as voters. In return, the politicians are expected to keep their adoptive kinsmen out of jail, find places for them on the national payroll. For the country as a whole, the compadre system usually means blood feuds and built-in graft.

Policing Job. It was different this time. Before last week's election, General Isagani Campo, chief of the 17,000-man Philippine constabulary, told both candidates that his men were nonpartisan and intended to do their policing job and nothing more. On election day, reinforced by detachments from the regular army, the constables avoided any suggestion of intimidating voters by remaining 100 yds. from the polling places--but they kept order. Civic-minded organizations such as the Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Knights of Columbus set up volunteer, nonpartisan groups to tally results.

At week's end even a defeated Garcia ally conceded that "this election proves that when the people feel a change is necessary, it can and will take place peacefully." And General Campo spoke for many of his countrymen in stating proudly: "I'd say that the good state of peace and order indicates the growing political maturity of the Filipino people."

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