A "Girl Scout's" Day in Court

Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos may not be everyone's idea of a "little Girl Scout." But that was how she described herself last week when she made an unexpected appearance before the government-appointed board of Justice Corazon Agrava to answer questions about the assassination of Opposition Leader Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino Jr. in August 1983. Dabbing tears from her eyes, Mrs. Marcos, in a voice breaking with emotion, told how she had done everything in her power to save the life of her husband's chief political opponent. She vehemently denied reports that during a meeting with Aquino in New York three months before his assassination, she had warned that neither she nor her husband could prevent Marcos loyalists from harming him if he returned home.

Mrs. Marcos' evidence came at the end of the eight-month-long investigation into Aquino's death. Despite contradictory testimony, the Marcos government has continued to stick by its story that Aquino was killed by a hired gunman in a Communist plot. Justice Agrava did little to appease suspicions that her board has been too soft on government witnesses: at the end of Mrs. Marcos' testimony, Agrava asked everyone present to sing Happy Birthday to the First Lady, who turned 55 that day.