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- <text id=90TT1977>
- <title>
- July 30, 1990: Philippines:Return Of A Vengeful King
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 30, 1990 Mr. Germany
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 46
- THE PHILIPPINES
- Return of the Vengeful King
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>A massive temblor shudders Manila and its environs, killing more
- than 700 people
- </p>
- <p> According to Filipino myth, the earthquakes that regularly
- ravage the archipelago are caused by the exertions of a
- legendary Tagalog king as he tries to free himself from his
- prison cave. Last week the king bestirred himself anew. At 4:26
- p.m. Monday, a massive temblor shook the northern island of
- Luzon. At its epicenter in Nueva Ecija province, north of
- Manila, it measured 8.0 on the Richter scale (last month's
- quake in northwestern Iran registered 7.7). One of the worst-hit
- cities was the mountain resort of Baguio, 150 miles north of
- Manila, where dozens of buildings collapsed. By week's end the
- quake had killed more than 700 people and injured nearly 3,000.
- Hundreds were missing, most trapped in the rubble of shattered
- buildings.
- </p>
- <p> In the provincial capital of Cabanatuan, rescue workers used
- handkerchiefs to ward off the stench of decaying bodies as they
- worked in the sweltering heat to peel away the remains of a
- six-story school building. "It happened so fast," said Abelaida
- Belino, a school principal who was in her office when the quake
- hit. "I had to stumble my way out. But I'm very lucky. I feel
- like I've been given a new life."
- </p>
- <p> Metropolitan Manila, though largely undamaged, was severely
- shaken. In Malacanang Palace, where President Corazon Aquino
- was presiding over a meeting with Cabinet ministers and
- Senators, participants scrambled for cover under the conference
- table. Quipped Aquino: "What the coup failed to do, the
- earthquake did"--a reference to the stoutly denied report
- that during a failed 1987 insurrection she was cowering under
- her bed.
- </p>
- <p>By Guy D. Garcia. Reported by David S. Jackson/Cabanatuan and
- Nelly Sindayen/Manila.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-