PHILIPPINES: Democracy in Hukland

"The Huks are fighting the government mainly because they want a house and land of their own," said the Philippines' Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay. "All right, they can stop fighting, because I will give them a house and land."

Escorted to the ship by the dynamic Secretary himself, a batch of 75 Communist guerrillas, who had surrendered or been captured in the hills of Luzon, set sail with their families for sparsely populated Mindanao, where they would farm their own land. At first, the Huks who had volunteered for Magsaysay's resettlement program were doubtful. Some half suspected they were walking...