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- <text id=89TT0424>
- <link 89TT2609>
- <link 89TT1016>
- <title>
- Feb. 13, 1989: World Notes:The Philippines
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Feb. 13, 1989 James Baker:The Velvet Hammer
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 56
- World Notes
- THE PHILIPPINES
- A Plea to Go Home
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The 6 a.m. phone call roused Philippine Vice President
- Salvador Laurel from his sleep. It was a sobbing Imelda Marcos
- on the line with an urgent appeal from the hospital bedside of
- her husband, exiled former President Ferdinand Marcos. "The
- doctor told him he hasn't much time to live," she said to
- Laurel, pleading for permission for Marcos to return home so
- that he can die in his native land. After flying to Honolulu,
- where the Marcoses have lived since fleeing Manila in 1986,
- Laurel visited the ailing ex-President and agreed that he
- appeared to be hovering near death.
- </p>
- <p> But President Corazon Aquino, who has steadfastly refused to
- allow Marcos back into the country, did not budge. Despite
- Laurel's bleak assessment of Marcos, who is ailing with
- congestive heart failure, pneumonia and bronchial asthma,
- Aquino said, "I don't think he's dying." Aquino may have nothing
- to fear if Marcos returns home, but some believe Imelda might
- use the occasion to rally opposition to Aquino's rule. "Let's
- not kid ourselves for a moment," wrote columnist Maximo Soliven
- in the pro-Aquino Philippine Star. "She's raring for a
- comeback."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-