Needed: Two Fists

Three years ago the Philippines formally received their independence from the U.S. By precept and practical help, the U.S. gave the new nation a great chance to build a working democracy in a chaotic Asia threatened by Communism. From Manila last week, TIME Correspondent Sam Welles cabled the following report on how the Philippines were doing:

We were driving along the mountain road on which Mrs. Aurora Quezon, widow of the Philippines' first President, was assassinated by the Communist-led Huks* last spring. For miles the road was deserted. Stray pieces of rotting cloth and bullet-ridden luggage still mark the site of the ambush. Soldiers for our party, clutching their carbines, fanned out to survey the scene; one flushed a parrot from a high fern. "I knew three of the dead," said their lieutenant, and idly fired four rounds of ammunition at a towering lawan tree. "In memory of Mrs. Quezon and my three friends," he explained, as two orchid blossoms fluttered down.

People in Private Cars. The deserted road was a grim reminder of the threat which the Huks represent for the young republic. Along it dozens of villages were deserted. Fruit rotted on mango and papaya trees. Fields were reverting to jungle. The Huks sack villages, carry off all their food and many of their young men to the Huk mountain hideouts. The U.S.-educated provincial governor, Juan Chioco, told me that nearly 150,000 people of the 500,000 in Nueva Ecija province have been forced to flee their homes.

There are only 10,000 active Huks, with several hundred thousand sympathizers, among the 20 million Filipinos. But they have caused great damage in the central Luzon plain, the Philippines' rice bowl. They stage daring raids within ten miles of Manila. They have large supplies of firearms, including machine guns and mortars, which they got from the U.S. when they fought the Japanese as guerrillas, or took from the Japanese after the surrender. Last year, Huk Leader Luis Taruc, an avowed Communist, made an agreement with President Elpidio Quirino to register the Huks' arms in exchange for an amnesty, but the Huks turned in few arms, and fighting grew bitterer than ever. Said Governor Chioco: "We must use both our fists. In its right hand the government must have a gun. In the left hand it must have a sound social program, or the Huks will grow stronger."

So far, the government has relied chiefly on its right hand. Social reforms have been few. The Huks feed on poverty and class bitterness. Two weeks ago police captured Raymundo Viray, a husky tenant farmer who took part in the Quezon ambush. In the "Stalin School" at Huk headquarters his instructors had taught him "Communism, songs like the Red Flag and the International, and all about Communist success in Russia and China." Awaiting trial in the Nueva Ecija provincial jail, he related how, before the Quezon ambush, his group had raided a convoy of ten trucks without harming anyone. "Why didn't you loot the Quezon party in the same way and let them go?" I asked. He replied with the Huk view of the class war: "People in trucks are not our mortal enemies. People in passenger cars are."

Pure-Blooded Sawmill. The Filipinos are among the few peoples in Asia today who eat as much and dress as well as before the war. This achievement is chiefly due to U.S. aid. Washington has poured the staggering sum of $1.5 billion into the Philippines since war's end; another half-billion is earmarked for various projects until 1951. This aid has not expanded the Philippines' industry or even restored its prewar production level; most of it has been spent for consumer goods. During the past two years, the Philippines have imported more than twice what they exported. (In 1939 imports & exports nearly balanced.) Output is so far behind increasing wages and other costs that many Philippine products are too expensive for world markets. Since war's end, U.S. private investment has been a mere $20 million.

There is little evidence of anti-Americanism; on the contrary, the people want more U.S. advice. The Filipinos do resent some forms of discrimination, e.g., under the Bell Act the U.S. can export all it wants to the islands, while Philippine exports to the U.S. are limited by quotas. Social bars between Americans and Filipinos have practically vanished, but Filipino nationalism is growing. A sign in the town of Cabanatuan is typical: "Do you know that in this town a sawmill run by 100% Filipino capital and labor is operating to keep prices low? Ask any pure-blooded Filipino to point it out to you."

Like Latin America. So far, three major candidates are in the field for next November's presidential elections: President Quirino, who recently stole a march on his rivals by getting himself invited to visit President Harry Truman and who has announced an ambitious plan for "Pacific Union"; Jose Avelino, who was ousted as Senate president last spring ostensibly because of graft but actually for being a dangerous rival to Quirino within his own Liberal Party; and Jose Laurel, puppet President during the Japanese occupation, who is making an amazing political comeback. The Huks, who are not strong enough to run their own candidate, support Laurel. To excuse the party's backing of a collaborationist, one Communist leader said last week: "The other candidates favor collaboration with American imperialism, which is worse than Japanese militarism."

Perhaps the most alarming fact in the Philippines is that their politics become daily more Latin American than North American. Corruption is common; within one week, four cases came to light. Manila's Mayor Manuel de la Fuente (who runs the best cockpits inside Manila, although cockfighting is illegal in the city) asked a leave of absence after being accused of bribery. The treasurer of Malacanan Palace, the President's official residence, was short $42,000 in his accounts; a Luzon postmaster was arrested for removing $259,000 worth of pension checks from the mails; and the governor of Leyte, together with six of his subordinates, was suspended for fraud. Last spring an investigation showed that Presidential Candidate Avelino made $22,500 by selling government-owned beer.

Despite corruption and Communist harassment, the major part of the Philippines is as orderly as it has ever been. No dictator is in sight. "If a democracy is where nobody knows who will win the next election," one Filipino told me, "then this is a democracy."

That is true as far as it goes, but to inspire all Asia, Philippine democracy would have to produce a better definition.

* Huk is short for Hukbalahap, which is short for Hukboang Bayan Laban sa Hapon, which in Tagalog means "People's Army Against Japan."

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