CORAZON AQUINO

I am dismayed by the way your headline writers manhandled the passably objective reportage of Bob Drogin. The title, “Aquino Amid the Ruins,” subheaded with “The Squandered Promise of ‘People Power’ ” (April 8), gives a spin to a piece that proclaims “Today, her successes are undeniable” and goes on to quote ordinary citizens who support the government of Corazon Aquino.

There are other points that I would like to make:

- While Drogin says that (several) U.S. Embassy officials did not attend out of nervousness, Ambassador Nicholas Platt, his wife and his secretary were in Baguio for the Philippine Military Academy rites.

- President Aquino does not stand behind bulletproof glass when she speaks to crowds. Sometimes, though, the podium itself is reinforced.

- Also, the crowd at her fourth anniversary celebration was possibly the “smallest ever,” but 30,000 it was not. Perhaps 200,000?

- Tony Gatmaitan’s saying “We need an authoritarian figure” is typical, considering that Gatmaitan was among the favored few who became millionaires under the last dictator.

- I find it strange that the foreign press considers Eduardo Cojuangco a contender when all the polls that have been done since he arrived last year rate him as insignificant.

- If now we have 20 thieves instead of 40, as Cardinal Jaime Sin says, is that not a 50% reduction? This government is the most honest and uncorrupted of all the governments that this country has had.

- Perhaps one of the toughest legacies that President Aquino will leave behind is the personal integrity and honesty that she has brought to the office. Since she is not running for re-election, the next president will be hard put to live up to the measuring stick she leaves in the presidential office.

I must congratulate Drogin for an otherwise fine piece. I did not agree with everything that he wrote, but it is a generally fair report. I particularly like the idea that he mentions by name most of the people he interviewed. This stresses how safe people feel about the freedom of the press in this country. Unlike other reports that use innuendo and unnamed “sources,” Drogin is fair and thorough, unlike the headline writers, who seem to have a doomsday fixation on the Philippines.

HORACIO V. PAREDES, UNDERSECRETARY FOR OPERATIONS, OFFICE OF THE PRESS SECRETARY, Malacanang Palace, Manila