Filipino Troops Given Poisoned Water; 19 Die

MANILA —  At least 19 combat troops of the Philippine Constabulary died and 140 others were hospitalized after villagers on the southern island of Mindanao offered them poisoned water while the men were jogging on a “fun run,” military authorities reported Sunday.

Meantime, the armed forces chief, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, approved a plan Sunday to return to active duty most of the troops captured in the bloody coup attempt on Aug. 28 to overthrow the government of President Corazon Aquino.

The apparent mass poisoning occurred outside the port city of Zamboanga, where Communist guerrillas, Muslim insurgents and the private armies of warlords have combined to make ambushes, murders and kidnapings a daily occurrence.

Heat Suspected at First

At first, military authorities in the region suspected that the constabulary troops, who were running a four-mile training course on rural roads in the area surrounding their camp on Saturday morning, had died of heat exhaustion.

On Sunday, however, armed forces physicians who performed autopsies on the bodies of some of the victims and examined some of those who were being hospitalized concluded that the soldiers had been poisoned, most likely with a pesticide dissolved in the water that was offered to them as they ran past.

Local armed forces commanders said the men showed “classic poisoning symptoms,” among them dizziness, vomiting of blood, acute stomach pains and, in some cases, death.

Authorities said the mass killing is still under investigation, and they stopped short of blaming any one group.

At a press conference on Sunday, Brig. Gen. Lorenzo Rapanan, the regional commander, said there was “strong evidence of sabotage . . . by enemies of the state, leftists and extremists.”

“The majority of the patients in the hospital confirmed that, while they were jogging, some unidentified person or persons gave them ice water in small plastic bags.”

The general’s remark about the wide range of potential suspects illustrated just how embattled the armed forces remain 10 days after a bloody attempted coup d’etat against Aquino’s government that left 53 people dead, 260 injured and the armed forces deeply divided.

The leader of that uprising, Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan, remains at large, along with hundreds of fellow rebels, and from hiding, he has launched a shrewd psychological warfare campaign against Aquino and Ramos.

By most accounts, Honasan’s propaganda efforts are winning key military commanders over to his side and appealing to many Filipino civilians who are angry and frustrated over Aquino’s inability to alleviate the mass poverty in the nation and repair its many internal divisions.

Lenient Treatment

Ramos, meanwhile, approved a plan Sunday that applies leniency to those mutineers captured during the uprising, even though Aquino had initially promised stern punishment.

The armed forces press office said the plan would allow the 35 officers and 774 enlisted men held aboard two navy ships in Manila Bay to return to active duty following a period of “deprocessing and retraining.”

Maj. Gen. Eduardo Ermita, the deputy chief of staff, said in a report to Ramos that 65% of the detainees were privates or privates first class who “may be the least involved among the participants in the mutiny.”

“It was proposed that military and police elements in this category be segregated and transferred to the custody of their major service commands for deprocessing, retraining and reorientation so that they can be restored to normal duties,” the press statement said.

There was no indication that such lenient treatment would extend to Honasan or to the other officers who are believed to be in hiding with him.

Closed-Door Meeting

Ramos traveled outside Manila for the day Sunday--his first trip out of the capital since the mutiny--in an drive to counteract Honasan’s propaganda blitz. Traveling to Lucena City, capital of Quezon province south of Manila, Ramos spoke to commanders and enlisted men and stressed “the need to consolidate the ranks of the armed forces.”

Hundreds of soldiers from that region supported Honasan, Ramos conceded, and he thanked the officers and men who remained loyal to Aquino.

In a related development, Vice President Salvador Laurel met Sunday with hundreds of officers and enlisted men at Camp Aguinaldo, which the rebels had used as their base during the coup attempt. The meeting is the latest in a series of consultations aimed at easing anti-government feelings within the ranks.