The Philippines a Lady Faces Marcos

By Jill Smolowe

Chants of "Cory! Cory!" filled the room as Corazon Aquino, 52, spoke into the microphone. "I hereby affirm my candidacy and confirm my willingness if elected to serve our people as President of the Republic of the Philippines." With that declaration, the widow of slain Opposition Leader Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino Jr.--a career housewife and mother of five who has never before run for office--ended weeks of speculation and confirmed that she would ) oppose President Ferdinand Marcos, 68, in a snap election called for Feb. 7.

Aquino's announcement did not resolve the larger question that loomed in the minds of Filipino voters. Would the splintered opposition forces now unite around Aquino, with former Senator Salvador ("Doy") Laurel, 57, holding the vice-presidential spot on her ticket? Or would Laurel, the other leading opposition candidate, pursue his own campaign, thus forcing Marcos' challengers to field two tickets and split the opposition vote?

Five days later, the matter was addressed in another announcement, and this one sent a chill through the opposition ranks. At a Sunday press conference, Laurel declared that he would pursue the presidency. He added that he was calling off a single-ticket deal struck earlier with Aquino because she had backed away from an agreement to run under the banner of Laurel's party, the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO). "I can sacrifice myself. I can sacrifice the presidency," he said. "But I cannot sacrifice my party, my principles and the people who have worked so hard all these years to put up the political machine that can topple the Marcos dictatorship."

At the same time, the Aquino family put out the word that their candidate would pursue her own campaign. Although the breach seemed bitter, insiders cautioned that anything, including a reconciliation, was possible before Dec. 21, when the tickets must be officially declared. After all, they noted, both Laurel and Aquino know that without a unified opposition ticket, the anti- Marcos vote will be split and the chances of defeating the President will be reduced virtually to zero.

The jolting news capped an especially dramatic week in Philippine politics. At 8:30 a.m. on Monday, 150 people crammed into a Manila courtroom to hear a clerk and two interpreters read the verdict in the trial of 26 men charged with conspiracy in the assassination of Ninoy Aquino as he stepped off a plane at the Manila international airport on Aug. 21, 1983. The opinion of the three-judge court ran to 90 pages and took more than two hours to recite, but the verdict boiled down to two words: not guilty. "Thank God, it's all over," said the most important defendant, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Fabian Ver, 65. The general then headed for Malacanang Palace, the presidential residence, where he delivered a letter requesting his reinstatement to the military's top post. Ver had been suspended from that post upon his indictment 14 months earlier, and Marcos had promised to reinstate him upon acquittal. Three hours after Ver left it at the palace, his letter was returned with a message from Marcos penned in the margin. The request to resume duty, it read, "is hereby approved for such a period as may be decided upon by me."

Last week's verdict rejected the conclusions of a civilian fact-finding board that a military conspiracy was behind Aquino's murder. Instead, the court supported the military's contention that Rolando Galman, an alleged Communist gunman, had somehow managed to penetrate the 1,199-man security cordon at the airport that day and shot Aquino on the tarmac before being felled by a fatal barrage from nearby guards. The justices dismissed all evidence that buttressed the prosecution's argument that Aquino was instead slain by a soldier on the jetliner's service stairway.

That evidence was extensive. A journalist's audio tape suggested that the first shot came too soon after Aquino left the plane for him to have reached the tarmac and Galman, but the court rejected the tape as inconclusive. The justices also dismissed the testimony of Rebecca Quijano, a passenger on the plane who said that she had seen a soldier in a military police uniform shoot Aquino. Quijano's disclosures, the opinion said, were marred by "emotional instability" and a "personal animus toward the military." The court had earlier rejected the main evidence against Ver, which consisted principally of contradictory statements about intelligence gathering that the general had made when he voluntarily appeared before the civilian board. Ver's testimony before that panel was ruled inadmissible by the court, a decision that was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court, on the grounds that he had not been advised of his right not to testify.

It was widely expected that the defendants would be acquitted by the three Marcos-appointed judges, so the verdict provoked few demonstrations and no violence. But opposition leaders responded to the verdict with anger. "The (court) just committed triple murder," said Agapito ("Butz") Aquino, 47, the slain leader's younger brother. "Not only did it kill Ninoy and Galman all over again. It also killed the country's judiciary." Said Cory Aquino, refusing to consider the matter of her husband's death closed: "My No. 1 suspect is Mr. Marcos."

Even in Washington, where Marcos enjoys some of his strongest support, the official response was harsh. Under Secretary of State Michael Armacost said that the verdict was "impossible to reconcile with the conclusions of the widely respected (civilian board)." He also expressed concern over Ver's return to his post, a move that the Reagan Administration has openly opposed. Said Armacost: "It raises questions as to whether factional loyalties or professional accomplishments will determine advancement in the Philippine armed forces."

Marcos deftly eluded the barrage of criticism. Twelve hours after Ver's reinstatement, he signed Cabinet Bill No. 7, calling special presidential elections for Feb. 7. That was the signal Aquino had been waiting for, and a few hours later she made her announcement. The next day Marcos gave a million government employees a pre-election reminder of where their loyalties should lie: he approved $62 million worth of Christmas bonuses for them. Ver then announced pay increases and bonuses amounting to $14.9 million for soldiers and military retirees. Ver also began what was billed as a major military reorganization by reassigning 60 officers.

That choreographed frenzy was the latest demonstration of what even Marcos' foes concede is his tactical brilliance. For 20 years, the President has ruled the 7,000-island archipelago by keeping opposition forces in jail, in disarray and in constant uncertainty about his next move. He has also not hesitated to alter the country's democratic practices to suit his purposes. He evaded the constitution's limit of two four-year terms for the presidency by declaring martial law midway through his second term. Even when Marcos lifted martial law in 1981, he did not give up his authority to rule by decree. In recent years, however, Marcos' position has been eroded by his inability to contain a growing Communist insurgency, by charges of favoritism and economic mismanagement, by his intermittent ill health and by public suspicion about the Aquino assassination.

Despite the decline in Marcos' popularity, his newest challenger faces an uphill battle. Until the death of her husband, few Filipinos knew much about Cory Aquino. Born Jan. 25, 1933, she was the sixth of eight children in the Cojuangco family, a wealthy, politically prominent clan based in Tarlac, a province 65 miles northwest of Manila. After attending schools in Manila and the U.S., she earned degrees in French and mathematics from New York City's Mount St. Vincent College, returned to Manila and enrolled in law school. But in 1956 she abandoned the academic life to marry Ninoy Aquino, the mayor of Concepcion who, at age 22, was the Philippines' youngest mayor.

As Ninoy moved from mayor to governor to Senator, Cory stayed quietly in the background. The Aquinos' comfortable life in a middle-class Manila suburb was severely disrupted in 1972 when Marcos jailed Ninoy, his most outspoken critic. After Ninoy was released for medical reasons in 1980, the couple moved to Boston, where they lived for three years before Ninoy decided that he must return home to unite the anti-Marcos forces.

In the aftermath of the assassination, Mrs. Aquino impressed many Filipinos with her heartfelt attempts to unify the splintered opposition. Although she disavowed any interest in political office, her reputation for moral integrity pushed her to the front of the anti-Marcos movement. Two months ago, she said she would become a candidate for the presidency only if Marcos called a special election, and 1 million Filipinos signed petitions urging her to run. Two days before Marcos signed Bill No. 7 last week, Aquino's supporters presented her with stacks of petitions bearing 1.2 million signatures.

In her first statements as a declared candidate, Aquino followed her husband's political program closely. Like Ninoy, Cory hopes that her highly moralistic approach will appeal to voters grown weary of the corruption and lack of political freedom that have characterized the Marcos years. She has repeated Ninoy's invitation to the estimated 16,500 Communist guerrillas belonging to the New People's Army to put down their guns and join the political dialogue. She has endorsed the removal from the Philippines of two U.S. military installations, Clark Air Base and the Subic Bay Naval Station, but, like Ninoy, she is vague about when they must go. She has promised to retain the bases at least until 1991, when an agreement with the U.S. expires. Despite her status as a folk hero to many Filipinos, Aquino will have to work hard to defeat the President at the polls. During the election campaign, the opposition expects Marcos to outspend the $28 million or so that Aquino hopes to raise. Marcos' ruling New Society Movement (K.B.L.) is the dominant force in most of the country's 73 provinces, and he can dispense favors and public works virtually at will. Aquino must also overcome the handicap of being female in a heavily Spanish-influenced, male-dominated society. Marcos has already pressed his advantage on that point, claiming that ( the Philippines is not ready for a woman President. Furthermore, skeptics inside and outside the Philippines doubt that Aquino, should she win, would have the toughness and the savvy to cope with the country's problems. There are questions about how she would deal with pressures from supporters who are now united but may fall out after Marcos is ousted.

At the moment, such concerns seem the least of Aquino's problems. Her hopes for an electoral success will be all but obliterated if she and Doy Laurel cannot patch up their differences. Laurel is a onetime Marcos ally and an experienced politician who, as head of UNIDO, controls the country's second strongest non-Communist political machine, after Marcos' K.B.L. The Aquino forces have counted on benefiting from UNIDO's political expertise in the weeks ahead. Instead, "Cory's Crusaders" may now have to combat their own inexperience as they hit the campaign trail. The UNIDO forces, meanwhile, may have to spend most of the campaign season explaining to bewildered voters why Laurel refused to let his ambition take a back seat to the greater interest of opposition unity.

Beyond the strategic disadvantages, both opposition candidates face the prospect of dishonest elections. It is hardly a secret that Marcos has tight control of the electoral apparatus. The Marcos-dominated Commission on Elections (COMELEC) supervises the polls. Moreover, each step of the vote- tabulating process, from the precincts to urban and provincial centers, and finally to the National Assembly, is dominated by government employees and K.B.L. members.

The system provides ample opportunity for fraud, a charge that has traditionally attended Philippine elections. Opposition leaders are bracing for an unfair contest on Feb. 7. "We believe Marcos will do his worst," says Laurel. Addressing such doubts, the President has announced that foreign officials will be permitted to monitor the balloting. The opposition is also pressing for accreditation of the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections, a watchdog group created to help police the 1984 parliamentary elections, in which opposition candidates won a record 59 seats. COMELEC has not yet approved the opposition outfit's application to watch the polls.

As Marcos and Aquino prepared last week for the formal launching of their campaigns, a cloud hung over the entire enterprise. Marcos opponents have filed ten petitions before the Supreme Court seeking to cancel the election because the President has refused to resign before it is held, as required under the constitution. The petitioners hope to delay the vote and thereby win the opposition more campaign time. But the ploy could backfire. If it begins to appear that either opposition candidate might outpoll the President, the Supreme Court, which is dominated by Marcos appointees, might declare the election null and void.

Given the opposition's disunity, such a step would be overkill. Few believe that an opposition in such disarray can overcome Marcos' considerable electoral advantages. Whatever the outcome on Feb. 7, Cory Aquino emerged last week as a major force in the opposition ranks--and the freshest new face in Philippine politics since a reform-minded young World War II hero named Ferdinand Marcos entered the House of Representatives in 1949.

With reporting by Sandra Burton and Nelly Sindayen/Manila