10
University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Thursday, Feb. 13, 1986
Aquino says a neutral U.S. helps Marcos steal election
United Press International
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential challenger Corazon Aquino sharply rebuked President Reagan yesterday for his neutral stance on the Philippine elections. Aquino said Washington's attitude would help Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos steal the disputed vote.
The Philippine National Assembly convened for a third day in hopes of finally beginning an official vote tally but adjourned again without having counted a single return.
Two unofficial vote counts showed Aquino and Marcos neck-and-neck in Friday's chaotic election, but the final decision is up to the assembly — where Marcos' ruling KBL Party holds a two-thirds majority.
Aquino blasted Reagan for his statement that the United States would remain neutral and support whatever government is declared the winner — a remark widely interpreted in the Philippines as support for Marcos.
Aquino said, "I would wonder at the motives of a friend of democracy who chose to conspire with Mr. Marcos to cheat the Filipino people of their liberation." Aquino insisted she won a landslide victory.
"I think not only Filipinos, but the vast majority of the American
people and their Congress, would conderm any such action which so flagrantly assists in returning a people to their captivity," she said.
The United States has vital interests in the Philippines, where it maintains its two largest overseas military installations.
Reagan made clear Tuesday that preserving the installations was the highest U.S. priority in the Philippines.
Marcos supporters said they were delighted by Reagan's statement the United States would remain neutral in the election dispute.
Arturo Pacificador, a member of Marcos' party, said, "President Reagan's statement gave us reassurance that unlike Vietnam, America will never drop us. America still recognizes our sovereignty."
Aquino also criticized Reagan for sidestepping reports of election fraud and violence and for stating that the election proved the strength of the Philippines' two-party system.
She said, "I suggest to him that before making further comments on the election itself, he make additional inquiries from his own embassy, the observers and the media.
"It would be a delusion of policy to believe that an opposition, whose leaders and followers have
been and are being killed, can suddenly settle down to a Western-style opposition role in a healthy two-party system.
"Too many will be dead the moment the world's head is turned."
Aquino is the widow of opposition leader Benigno Aquino, who was assassinated in 1983.
At least 129 people have been killed in election-related violence since December.
Reagan said Philip Habib, a former special envoy to the Middle East, is being sent to Manila to assess the political situation there.
The opposition has been challenging the seals and signatures on tally sheets, saying the challenges are aimed at underliner cheating.
Aquino said Habib would be welcome but sarcastically admitted she had "some alarm that his last task for the president was trying to negotiate an end to Lebanon's civil war."
She said she hoped Reagan was not expecting the Philippines to go the same way as Lebanon.
The 179-member National Assembly devoted its third election-tally session to opening and inspecting boxes of returns.
An independent citizen group, the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, or Namrel, conducted an unofficial election count yesterday and put Aquino ahead by 628,300 votes.
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He read a statement to reporters' deploring the murders of a provincial Filipino opposition leader, Evilo-Javier, and an opposition campaign worker, Arsenio Torebic, who was well-known to the U.S. Embassy.
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He said he did not know if Habib would meet directly with Marcos or his challenger Corazon Aquino.
In announcing the mission, Reagan said Habib would "adverse me on how the United States can best pursue that task and to assess the desires and needs of the Filipino people."
At the State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb declined to be any more specific about Habib's mission.
The administration appeared to be waiting until the results of the election were determined before saying more.
As Reagan traveled to St. Louis aboard Air Force One, White House spokesman Larry Speakes told reporters Habib "will meet with representatives of all spectrums of Philippine society — the government, the opposition, the church and others."
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Speakes said the mission was an opportunity to assess the situation.
Djerejian added that Habib said he would obtain a first-hand assessment.
Ambassador Habib is dispatched to assess Philippine vote counts
Philippine Ambassador Benjamin Romualdez, who is the brother-in-law of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, also was at the White House yesterday, apparently to meet with Habib and other officials. However, there was no indication that he saw Reagan.
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Reagan gave Ambassador Philip Habib instructions yesterday before Habib departed for the Philippines to get a "first-hand assessment" of the disputed election results.
Habib, whom Reagan named Tuesday as his special emissary to the Philippines, told reporters after a White House meeting that he would be leaving soon for Manile, but he was not more specific.
Deputy White House press secretary Edward Dijerjean said Reagan met with Habib and other advisers for about 10 minutes before the president left for a political stop in St. Louis on his way to a brief vacation in California.
viser John Poindexter, Sigur Gaston,
assistant secretary of state-
designate for East Asian affairs,
Paul Wolfowitz, ambassador-
designate to Indonesia, and Nancy
Reagan.
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