Evening star., 1953-11-08
By EorI H. Yoss

to see him, the least he can do is
say hello.
Such was Magsaysay's reception in
Quirino's "solid north" where earlier
the people were said to favor the
President because he is one of them.
They are all Ilocanos (northern Lu-
zon natives) together, they used to
say, and, being clanniSh and ritu-
alistic, they would stick with Quirino.
What these nocanos did not know
until recently is that Magsaysays
father was himself an Ilocano.
"Mon-ching" came to northern Lu-
zon and spoke the native dialect
huently, told jokes with regional
appeal, and exposed every one to
the irresistible MagSaySay charm.
AS of now. the men in Magsay-
says high command still are not
claiming that Mon-ching will sweep
Northern Luzon. But they hope to
crack it. There will be no walk
aWayS in those provinces such as
Quirino scored in 1949, they are
sure. And with the high hopes they
hold for carrying most of the rest of
the Philippine Islands to the south,
as well as southern Luzon, they took
for landslide victory.
Victory Unless >.
They expect victory, that is, unless
Quirino can cheat enough to win.
Malacanan is stepping up the pace
of shuf1ing key election officials in
the provinces. Quirino claims he is
neutraliZing MagSaySay StrongholdS.
MagSaysay says Quirino Is placing
StoogeS
The MagSaysay personality looks
to most observers here to be more
than enough to carry MagsaySay.
but there is one other campaign
plank which looms large. This is
the corruption issue. It has two
sides, the allegedly black one which
is Quirinos past record and the
white one which is Magsaysay's
record.
This is the NacionaliSta Party's
main talking point, and the one
which MagSaysay speaks about the
most. MagsaySay'S record against
the Hulk guerillas, in keeping the
1851 elections clean, in cleaning out
corruption in the army when he was
Quirino'S Secretary of Defense
these make excellent campaign ma
terial.
The backsheesh system among
Quirino's top subordinates, who have
amasSed great fortunes and paid
almost no income taxes, is a vul-
nerable target brought in full view
by the Philippines incredibly free
press.
There are two sets of rules"
MagsaySay says, lone for the big
shots and one for the little Shots"
He passionately proclaims at every
barrio meeting that he will bring
the income tax evaders and other
corrupt groups to book as soon as
he is elected.
He adds that he is man of
action" He promises to act on
any private citizens complaint to
him within five days, and apollo
glzes for taking so long. He gives
instances where men have had to
wait six or seven years for veterans
pensions, and tells how he plans to
avoid any more of this. Everybody
is wondering how close he will come
to delivering on this impressive
promise if the populace takes him
up. Any other man making such a
rash pledge would be laughed out
of court, but Magsaysay draws, at
worst, a thoughtful "wait-and-see"
or, at best, open confidence that he
can succeed.
Another facet of the corruption
issue is the question of enforcing
taX-collection laws. So far the
collections have been miserably
poor, with the largest operators get
ting off almost scot free. Mr.. Mag
saySay claims he will double tax
revenues in comparatively short
time by strict enforcement measures,
but will not be specific on how long
it will take him. His claim prob
ably is optimistic, but no one doubts
that he will be able to raise the