Political Laws Issued by Aquino : Communist Party Banned in Edicts Favoring Military

MANILA —  Philippine President Corazon Aquino, in her final 24 hours as the nation’s sole lawmaker, enacted a flurry of legislation Sunday, including edicts banning the Communist Party, authorizing the formation of a citizens’ army and making rebellion a crime punishable by life in prison.

The presidential decrees were widely seen as concessions to the nation’s military leaders, who have been battling an 18-year Communist insurgency. The edicts came on the eve of today’s convening of a new national Congress--the first independent legislature in the Philippines since 1972.

With government troops on full-alert status and police anti-terrorist units surrounding the suburban Congress building to guard against violent attempts by both the radical left and right to disrupt the new legislature, Aquino on Sunday signed a total of 42 decrees, bringing to 75 the number of laws she has passed since Friday. They represent nearly a third of all the laws Aquino has enacted with her unchallenged legislative power since she took office 17 months ago.

Anger on the Left

Many of the presidential decrees she signed Sunday are expected to anger the political left, which has already announced that it will hold a major anti-government demonstration today outside the building where Aquino is scheduled to address the opening joint session of the new Congress this afternoon.

Manila’s military commander, Gen. Alexander Aguirre, banned all rallies and mass actions outside the building today, and several congressmen said they fear that a clash could mar a day that Aquino has called a landmark in the nation’s return to full democracy after nearly 15 years of dictatorship under former President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

‘Not a Dictator’

Aquino dissolved the nation’s last pro-Marcos National Assembly three weeks after she rose to power in a Roman Catholic Church-backed military revolt that drove Marcos into exile in Hawaii. Calling the rebellion a “people power revolution,” Aquino vowed at the time to use her lawmaking power sparingly, and, stressing that she would not abuse that power, she has said several times, “I am not a dictator.”

The president’s executive secretary, Joker Arroyo, whose powerful behind-the-scenes role since the coup has earned him the nickname “The Little President,” told reporters Sunday, “There is nothing unusual about the president’s signing so many executive orders in one day.”

Justice Secretary Sedfrey Ordonez, reacting to what the Philippine press quickly began calling “midnight decrees,” told reporters, “These are well within the scope of the executive and legislative powers granted by the Freedom Constitution.”

Aquino enacted a temporary charter that she called the “Freedom Constitution” after dissolving both the pro-Marcos legislature and a Marcos-drafted constitution in March, 1986. A new national charter written by a 48-member committee Aquino appointed in June, 1986, was overwhelmingly approved by voters last February, and the new American-style bicameral Congress was elected in still-disputed elections last May.

Most of the laws Aquino signed over the weekend were administrative measures dealing with the organization of her executive branch. But political analysts said several others represented sweeping legislation that would take months for Congress to modify or veto.

Majority in Congress

Aquino’s ruling political coalition holds a majority of at least 22 of the 24 Senate seats and 135 of 200 seats in the House of Representatives, but analysts have said they expect the coalition to splinter once the lawmakers take office.

Among the more controversial of Sunday’s decrees was one that specifically outlawed the Communist Party of the Philippines, which Aquino called a subversive organization trying to overthrow her government.

More than a decade ago, Marcos also banned the party, but he changed the law to delete the party’s name in the mid-1970s when the Philippines established diplomatic relations with China and the Soviet Union. Simple membership in the party is now punishable by six months’ imprisonment.

Another presidential decree expanded the penalties for party leaders and others convicted of “rebellion” to life in prison, a key demand of her armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos. The previous maximum punishment was 12 years in jail.

In addition, Aquino signed a law granting the military’s request to increase from six hours to 36 hours the amount of time military interrogators can legally hold suspects without filing charges.

‘Sanctioned Vigilante Group’

The decree authorizing a new, controversial citizens’ army, which the political left has branded a “sanctioned vigilante group,” will permit the military to enlist inactive military reservists and other citizens to replace a paramilitary force that human rights groups have likened to Central American death squads.

When she took power last year, Aquino freed hundreds of political prisoners, among them the founders of the Communist Party and its 23,000-member military wing, the New Peoples Army, as part of a policy of “reconciliation.” But, after a 60-day cease-fire with the rebels collapsed last February, Aquino declared “all-out war” on the insurgents in a policy shift loudly applauded by U.S. officials in Washington.

In addition to her law-and-order decrees, Aquino also signed a law on Sunday setting Nov. 9 as the date for local elections to replace thousands of elected, pro-Marcos governors, mayors and village chiefs fired by Aquino in the months after she took power.

Aquino has called those elections the last step in returning democracy to a nation torn by dictatorship and factional strife for decades.

Sunday’s decrees came just three days after Aquino’s most controversial executive order, mandating a nationwide land reform program that will require breaking up centuries-old, privately owned farms and offering plots for sale to the country’s 2.5 million landless peasants.

Both the left and right have rejected Aquino’s compromise land-reform decree, which will be the principal subject of today’s planned protest rallies at the legislature.