Aquino Defends Her Regime, Plan for Elections

MANILA —  President Corazon Aquino, in the first of a series of informal interviews on government television, defended her new regime Wednesday night, declaring, “I am not a dictator.”

Questioned by a single, sympathetic newswoman, Aquino said she will not opose plans of members of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ political party to reconvene the National Assembly next Monday in defiance of her abolition of the legislature.

“That is their problem,” she said. “They can say whatever they want. . . . I am not a dictator.”

Wearing yellow as usual but without her glasses, and seated on a rattan couch with a pensive photograph of her assassinated husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., on a table behind her, the president answered questions in both English and Tagalog, a national language.

Marcos supporters and others have criticized Aquino for taking lawmaking powers to herself, but she insisted that elections for a new national legislature and local officials cannot be held until a new constitution is written and ratified in a plebiscite, probably a year from now.

Revising the Constitution

Two weeks ago, Aquino proclaimed a provisional constitution, picking up parts of the constitution that Marcos wrote in the early 1970s and abandoning other parts. During the presidential campaign, she had promised to junk the Marcos constitution with its extraordinary presidential powers and have a new one written and ratified by the people.

Aquino has rejected suggestions that the country go back to the 1935 constitution, which authorized an American style of government with a bicameral national legislature. The question of what form of government the country should have has not become a hotly contested issue yet. Political debate here centers on whether members of the constitutional commission should be appointed or elected.

On the issue of elections for delegates to a constitution-writing commission, she declared: “We cannot afford them. That’s the sad truth. Mr. Marcos left us in economic ruin.”

If delegates were elected rather than appointed as she plans, Aquino said, legislative and local elections might not be held for two years.

Asked about reports of divisions between the military and her government, the 53-year-old chief executive, the Philippines’ first woman president, said the armed forces “can feel how the civilians did defend them and came to their rescue” in the four-day mutiny and revolution in late February that drove Marcos into exile. “I intend to strengthen this new-found relationship,” she said.

Defends Finance Minister

In other comments, Aquino:

--Defended her finance minister, Jaime Ongpin, against charges that he concealed reported holdings by Marcos’ brother-in-law in the Benguet Co., a mining firm that Ongpin headed before joining the Aquino Cabinet. The president cited Ongpin’s help during her election campaign and said the issue can be raised again if there is evidence of wrongdoing.

--Rejected press charges that her aides have created a cordon sanitaire around her that shields her from public contact. She said she reads newspapers an hour each day, receives letters from citizens and--revealing a sign of her family’s influence--said, “I have four daughters and a son, and the people do get to them.”

--Said that she wants “immediate and substantial” aid from the United States. She met earlier in the week with visiting Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and asked that economic aid be emphasized over military supplies.

--Declared that she supports a retrial in the 1983 killing of her husband. Last December, Marcos’ chief of staff, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, and 25 other military men were acquitted of a conspiracy to assassinate Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, then Marcos’ foremost political foe.

“I’ve always wanted to know the truth,” she said. But “Ninoy was not the only victim of Mr. Marcos’ regime,” she said, adding that other human rights cases should be given priority.

Investigation Ordered

In other developments Wednesday, a high-level military team was ordered to begin an immediate investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate President Aquino.

Presidential spokesman Rene Saguisag emphasized, however, that so far there is no proof that a plot existed.

An initial investigation was carried out by Manila police and the presidential security guard. It centers on a purported confession by Alberto Mercado, 39, that he had been paid about $25,000 to kill Aquino at a rally March 2, five days after she came to power. Manila newspapers quoted a prosecutor as saying that Mercado implicated two military officers, one a general, in the alleged plot, but Saguisag said Wednesday that the prosecutor denied making the statement.

At Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Budget Minister Alberto Romulo reported on a controversial nuclear power plant on Bataan Peninsula. Romulo, who like Aquino opposes operation of the plant, said the president called on all her ministers to submit recommendations on what action to take “within a few days.”

Westinghouse Corp. built the plant under a $2.1-billion contract signed by the Marcos regime. An anti-nuclear movement here has demonstrated against the plant for years, citing studies that charge it is unsafe. Recently, Aquino administration investigators disclosed that Herminio Disini, a close associate of Marcos, received $10 million in contract commissions on the deal. Westinghouse spokesmen have defended the payments.

Favors Suing Westinghouse

Romulo said he argued that the government should sue Westinghouse for alleged contract infractions. “We got damaged goods,” he charged.

The budget minister said the plant would supply 3% to 4% of the nation’s energy if completed, and that other energy sources could provide more power at less cost. According to Romulo, the government is paying $300,000 a day in interest alone on the contract.

The Cabinet meeting also heard a progress report from Jovito R. Salonga, head of the presidential commission on good government, which is investigating charges that Marcos and members of his family used public funds for personal investments here and abroad.

The government is expected to file charges “in the next few days” against the deposed and exiled president, Salonga said.

Saguisag did not disclose the contents of Salonga’s report, but Local Governments Minister Aquilino Pimentel, speaking to reporters outside the meeting room, said investigators have found that Imelda Marcos, the former president’s wife, used the pseudonym Jane Ryan in some Philippine and foreign investments. According to Pimentel, the pseudonym was found on documents discovered at Malacanang, the presidential palace.