World Notes THE PHILIPPINES

Even veterans of the five previous coup attempts found the latest plot to overthrow Philippine President Corazon Aquino alarming. According to army intelligence last week, Aquino was to be the target of an uprising this month led by prominent Right-Wing Politicians Gregorio Honasan, the fugitive colonel whose August mutiny nearly toppled Aquino, and Ferdinand Marcos. One crony reportedly even had a six-seater plane ready to spirit the exiled Marcos from Hawaii to Manila.

Yet Aquino did not move against politicians linked to the conspiracy. Instead, she shut down one radio station that had been broadcasting antigovernment messages and served warning on three others. To many skeptical observers, the threatened coup was merely a ruse to justify chilling the media. Said Columnist Maximo Soliven of the Philippine Star: "That's a song we have heard before -- with the lyrics by Marcos and the music by Imelda."