The World - News from April 18, 1988

President Corazon Aquino returned to Manila from a state visit to China and expressed gratitude to her military commanders for maintaining the government’s stability during her absence. Aquino was clearly pleased by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s official support for her government’s war against the 19-year-old, Maoist-based Communist insurgency. But she was equally pleased to have proved that she can make a foreign trip without exposing her government to a threat from within. “No one can say now that political stability in the Philippines is a daily battle that must be waged by the president herself,” Aquino declared upon her return.