THE PHILIPPINES: Romulo Withdraws

Dressed casually in slacks and tan printed sport shirt, Huk-fighting Ramon Magsaysay (TIME, Aug. 24) called last week on Rival Presidential Candidate Carlos P. Romulo, in Romulo's palatial home outside Manila. For half an hour they talked in a study jammed with autographed photographs, medals and other mementos of Romulo's career among the celebrities of the world, as brigadier general, ambassador and U.N. Assembly president. Then they came out smiling, to announce Romulo's withdrawal from the race and the throwing of his support to Magsaysay in the November elections. Now there will be a clear-cut fight between Magsaysay and the man he once served as Defense Secretary, President Elpidio Quirino.

Romulo, though his campaign had not caught fire, was not abandoning his own four-month-old splinter political party: it will be in a coalition with Magsaysay's Nacionalistas, and if the coalition wins, will share in the spoils (presumably Romulo would be reappointed Ambassador to the U.S.). Said Romulo: "They say a wise captain doesn't take his ship through a storm, but makes a detour. I am making a detour."