Ballots & Bolos

At Malolos in Bulacan Province, wan, frail President Elpidio Quirino pleaded with the voters. "Give me another chance, if only to complete all the projects you want me to complete." In Manila, Ramon Magsaysay solicited votes in confident tones. "The Filipino people want back their self-respect, their sense of honor and their dignity. They can have these things back only by replacing those who have taken them away."

Next week the Philippines will hold its third presidential election in its brief lifetime as a republic. The fierce campaign battle was almost over between the old (62) and ailing President and the younger (46), unpolished national hero who took on first the Huks, then Quirino's well-entrenched Liberal Party. The islands waited for the end with foreboding as well as with relief. A fear of violence hung over the cities, villages, the obscure jungle and mountain polling places, where some 5,000,000 Filipinos are to cast their votes.

According to the experts, Ramon Magsaysay and his Nacionalista-Democratic coalition are likely to top Quirino & Co. by several hundred thousand votes, in a fair count of ballots. Magsaysay supporters say that they have evidence that provincial officials have been ordered to produce Quirino pluralities or else. Quirino's managers released in turn a Nacionalista memorandum to party workers which suggested that if they anticipated attempts at intimidation, they should carry knives, hatchets or bolos. The election board in one province forbids flapping shirttails--the traditional Filipino way of dressing--on election day, so that officials can better tell whether a man is hiding weapons.

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