U.S. Acted to Halt Return by Marcos : Aquino Calls on People to Rally to Her Support

MANILA — A visibly shaken President Corazon Aquino on Thursday appealed to the mainstream of Philippine society to rally behind her during one of the darkest moments of her presidency.

After a week in which she has lost considerable support from within her powerful armed forces and the nation’s growing political left, Aquino called on the middle and working classes who supported her in her rise to power a year ago to mass in a Manila park Saturday to “demonstrate once more the power of the people.”

The 54-year-old former housewife also attempted to exert control over an increasingly alienated military, ordering her defense minister to file charges against 160 soldiers who seized a key television and radio station for three days.

Orders Ignored

The rebel troops surrendered without fanfare late Thursday afternoon, but not until after Aquino’s top military leaders chose to ignore her orders to “use the full force of the law,” including an all-out military attack, to liberate the station. Such an assault, military sources said, easily could have touched off a large-scale rebellion within the now deeply divided armed forces.

Defense Minister Rafael Ileto and Aquino’s military chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, refused to commit themselves Thursday about whether punishment awaits the rebel soldiers, who claimed they had never left the armed forces and were merely protesting the policies of Aquino’s civilian government.

In fact, in a Thursday morning press conference, Ileto went so far as to say that the government will pay for all property damage the rebel soldiers inflicted on the privately owned broadcast facility.

Nation Relieved

Although the Philippine nation clearly was relieved that the siege ended without bloodshed and without the coup that many feared could topple the Aquino government, Ileto conceded that its resolution had merely ended “another episode in the history of these disturbances that have plagued us these last so many months.”

In her nationally televised statement Thursday, Aquino said the recent attempts to destabilize her young government were aimed at preventing next Monday’s national referendum on a new constitution that she believes will bring stability to her government for the first time since she took power in last February’s “people’s power” revolution.

“Enemies of democracy agree with the friends of democracy that the ratification of the proposed constitution is essential to the preservation of democracy in the Philippines,” the obviously stressed president said, reading stiffly from the typewritten pages before her.

“This explains the desperate efforts of the opponents of the constitution to prevent the plebiscite on Feb. 2.”

Looming Threat

Yet another threat looms today, when several leftist organizations plan to march on the presidential palace with the bodies of two of the 19 peasants killed by soldiers during a similar march just seven days ago.

Alan Jazmines, general secretary of the leftist Peoples Party, stopped short of condemning the wide support within the military for the rebel soldiers, whose avowed purpose was to call the nation’s attention to the increasing influence of communism in the country.

The leftist leader did, however, suggest that the broadcast station takeover was less an attempted coup than a well-planned action to embarrass the Aquino government and force it toward the right.

“Were they (the rebel soldiers) trying to topple the government or merely to capture headlines, considering the Mendiola massacre?” Jazmines said, referring to the Mendiola Bridge, where the peasant marchers were gunned down.

‘Unusual Events’

Jazmines also echoed the left’s strategy of trying to alienate Aquino from her military chief of staff. The left hopes that it can draw Aquino away from the right by charging that Ramos had actually engineered what Defense Minister Ileto called “the unusual series of events in the military,” which began just after midnight Tuesday when rebel soldiers attacked key military bases and broadcast stations.

Referring to negotiations between Ramos and the leader of the rebels to end the siege, he said, “To some of us, it seemed to be scripted.”

Aquino’s top aides, in an effort to brighten the president’s fading image, tried to cast her as a decisive and effective leader by telling reporters that her government thwarted a bid by deposed ruler Ferdinand E. Marcos to return from exile in Hawaii.

In separate press briefings, Vice President Salvador Laurel and presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno announced that the government “aborted” a plan by Marcos and his wife, Imelda, to come home to rally Aquino’s opponents around the widespread dissent within the Philippine military.

Details Not Given

Neither official gave any details about how the Marcos plot was averted, but they asserted that the deposed dictator was planning to fly home aboard a private jet owned by a Lebanese arms merchant. (In Washington, U.S. officials made clear that Marcos was dissuaded by State Department intervention.)

Benigno said Marcos’ plan “fits into the pattern of events that have happened and are still happening in the country.”

Aquino also endeavored to counter yet another attack from her opponents by ordering her justice minister Thursday to file formal wiretapping charges against political opponents who released tapes last week of conversations between Aquino and two of her top aides last September. All three were overheard discussing ways of influencing the drafting of the proposed new constitution to protect two large U.S. military bases in the Philippines.

Finally, in her statement Thursday, Aquino sounded almost desperate in asking her traditional supporters from last February’s presidential election not to abandon her and her government’s middle path in the final days before Monday’s referendum.

“The enemies of democracy can still corrupt the electoral process,” the haggard-looking president said. “I ask you therefore to reactivate the people’s organizations that produced the people’s victory in the last election.”

Then, sounding more like a challenger than an incumbent, Aquino added, “If necessary, let us guard the ballot boxes again with our lives.”