10,000 Marcos Backers Urge His Return to Manila, Denounce Aquino

On the eve of an unauthorized session of the dissolved Philippine National Assembly, more than 10,000 supporters of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos packed into a downtown Manila park Sunday to denounce President Corazon Aquino as a dictator and urge her to allow Marcos to return to the Philippines.

Organizers of the anti-Aquino rally dusted off old campaign posters and slogans, released red, white and blue balloons--the color of Marcos’ political party, the New Society Movement--and proclaimed from the stage that Marcos is still the legitimate president of the Philippines.

It was a mirror image of Aquino’s 2 1/2-year protest campaign that helped end Marcos’ 20-year rule. Marcos loyalists honked thousands of car horns in the street after the afternoon rally and streamed out to hold an all-night vigil at a suburban complex where members of the dissolved assembly plan to hold a “rebel session of Parliament” today.

“The current administration is an administration that violates the will of the people,” former vice presidential candidate Arturo Tolentino declared from the stage of the same Manila park where Aquino held many of her rallies.

‘Temporary President’

Tolentino, who was Marcos’ running mate in the Feb. 7 presidential election, a race tarnished by fraud, maintained that he is the legitimate vice president of the country, and supporters dubbed him “temporary president of the Philippines” until Marcos is allowed to return from exile in Hawaii.

Aquino has said several times since taking power that she will not allow Marcos to come back, and her vice president, Salvador Laurel, has canceled Marcos’ passport in a move to further restrict his travel.

“We will not let go,” Tolentino declared to the cheering crowd, many of whom denied government charges that they were paid by Marcos’ party to attend. “We will continue to fight this government.”

The crowd shouted slogans in Tagalog, one of the Philippines’ official languages: “Still Marcos!” and “Cory Aquino is a Galunggong!”--a cheap, Filipino fish.

It was unclear who had organized the rally, but in the center of the crowd, a group of Marcos party workers were handing out membership cards in a national organization called the “I Am a Filipino Movement.” One of the workers, who was wearing a T-shirt that read “Da Boss Is in Hawaii,” said the movement was organized to secure Marcos’ return to the Philippines.

During a television broadcast on Sunday afternoon, apparently timed to coincide with the pro-Marcos rally, Aquino said she will not try to keep Marcos’ followers from holding such protests nor try to prevent his party members from convening the defunct legislature.

“They can reconvene, and that is their problem,” Aquino said during a question-and-answer TV session. “They can say whatever they want, and I guess the people are also free to listen to them. As I said earlier, I am not a dictator. Everybody is free to do as he or she wants.”

‘Cut Out the Cancer’

Aquino, who came to power Feb. 25 amid a civilian and military coup that drove Marcos out of the country, dissolved the assembly a month later in a move she said was meant to “cut out the cancer in our political system.”

The legislature was chosen in May, 1984, in elections that many opposition leaders called the most honest here in decades. But Aquino said the assembly had violated its trust with the people by proclaiming Marcos president after the flawed February presidential election.

Marcos’ New Society Movement controlled the legislature with a two-thirds majority, and despite internal divisions, party leaders Sunday asserted that they will muster at least 95 members for today’s unauthorized session.

Girding for a possible clash between Aquino and Marcos supporters, police in suburban Quezon City put anti-riot forces on alert Sunday. A demonstration by Marcos loyalists outside a television station taken over by Aquino’s government after the February coup triggered a brief skirmish Saturday night. No serious injuries were reported.

What makes the planned session especially troublesome for Aquino is the possibility of participation by members of the United Nationalist Democratic Party, or UNIDO, which formed half of the two-party coalition that helped bring her to power. It is also Vice President Laurel’s base of political support.

Many in UNIDO have grown increasingly alienated from Aquino’s government, which has favored the other coalition body, the Philippine Democratic Party, in Cabinet and other appointments.

Several former assemblymen who supported Aquino during her presidential campaign have also charged that her administration is becoming dictatorial and indicated that they, too, may participate in the rebel assembly session.

Asked during Sunday’s televised exchange whether such criticism bothered her, Aquino replied: “I will, of course, be hurt by criticism. I am only human. I am not a saint.”

But taking an apologetic tone that accompanied many of her answers, she said: “Please remember that Marcos ruled for 20 years, and while we would like to clean up and give you a better government, please give us a little time. It’s only been a month and a half.

Besides, she added, “I realized a long time ago I cannot please everybody.”