THE PHILIPPINES: Mambo, Mambo

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"I have been attacked as too young for office. Quirino didn't ask my age when he asked me to clean up Huks . . . They have attacked me because I was once a mechanic and truck driver. That's not an insult to me but an insult to 19 million humble Filipinos."

Rice & Coke. With cries of Mabuhay (long live) in his ears, earnest, honest Magsaysay climbed back into his car and drove on. It was pitch dark. At several villages, the candidate and his bodyguards plodded with flashlights through inky darkness in the rain to shake hands with people. At Guagua, Magsaysay dined on chicken and rice, washed down by Coca-Cola, and told a crowd that "by coming like this among the humble people of the country, I am revolutionizing political campaigning in the Philippines . . . My policy can be summed up in one word, 'action.' It's my obsession to serve you."

As his limousine headed back towards Manila, with a guard pointing a cocked carbine through the window into the rainy night, Magsaysay nervously cracked his knuckles, and predicted that he would get 60% of the votes if the election were free. He accused Quirino of hoping to stay in office by fraud and intimidation. If the election is stolen, said Magsaysay, "the Philippines will become a banana republic at the mercy of the Communists."