The World - News from March 22, 1988

Philippine President Corazon Aquino warned sugar barons that she would force through land reform and vowed to crush any armed resistance. Defending her land-redistribution project, she told a meeting of sugar planters that their era is over and land reform is now a matter of “national self-preservation.” She dismissed a call by a land-owning congresswoman for planters to arm themselves and resist with force any attempt to break up their estates. “There are 58 million Filipinos, most of whom are desperately poor and have no means to improve themselves or secure a better life for their children,” Aquino told the planters.