Mud & Cigars

In Manila last week a Filipino could clip a perfecto on whose gaudy band was a picture of President Sergio Osmena, and light it from a match pack carrying the picture of fiery Manuel Roxas y Acuna. Over Manila streets and provincial roads, campaign banners fluttered from bamboo arches. Poster-covered jeeps careened through the towns. The first contested presidential election in Philippine history was at hand (April 23).

The campaign was rough; the issues were confused. President Sergio Osmena was the candidate of the "conservative wing" of the Nacionalista Party. But Osmena's strongest blocs of support were far from conservative. Manuel Roxas (rhymes with slow boss) wore the label of the Nacionalista's "liberal wing." But Filipino liberal elements--the National Peasant Unionists and the restless, Communist-tinged Hukbalahaps--bitterly hate him.

Osmena's followers painted Roxas as a collaborator with the Japanese, although he had long since been officially cleared of such charges. Roxas furiously stumped the islands, flailed at Osmena's slow-footed handling of rehabilitation, his "weakness" in controlling the "terroristic Hukbalahaps."

Sly old (67) President Osmena, the Chinese mestizo, just sat by and waited. He let his wife do the campaigning. Last week he got some help from the U.S. Congress: the Senate upped the Philippine sugar quota; the House passed a bill that would give the Philippines $620,000,000 for rehabilitation. The Philippine economy had improved; the cost of living had taken a moderate dip.

Against this seasoned politicking, Manuel Roxas was staking his reputation as a young, determined public servant (he was the prewar Secretary of Finance). Last week he got a big boost when Mrs. Aurora Quezon, widow of the late President, gave him her support.

Almost no one made a guess on the outcome. Whoever won, his road would not be easy. On July 4, with Philippine independence finally a fact, he would be in full charge.

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