Orange County Filipinos Praise U.S. Military Aid

ANAHEIM —  Members of Orange County’s Philippine community Friday praised the United States’ military aid to help their homeland put down military rebels trying to topple President Corazon Aquino’s administration.

“I think the people will love the way the U.S. responded to Mrs. Aquino,” said Father Marito Rebamontan, who returned last week from a 15-day visit there. “Filipinos are very sentimental people. (Americans) will always be loved,” the Roman Catholic priest said.

Rebamontan, a member of the clergy at St. Anthony’s Claret in Anaheim, said he believes the coup attempt is the action of a small minority. Many fellow members of Orange County’s Philippine community on Friday agreed, saying that Filipinos are enjoying their expanded freedoms under Aquino and declaring that there is not widespread support for a change in leadership.

“(The rebels) won’t be able to topple the government,” Rebamontan said. “The people are really behind her.”

Phil DePerio, former president of the Philippino/American Bolinao Assn. of Southern California, said he thought Aquino should take a hard line against the rebels.

“If they don’t do that, these things will continue,” DePerio, 58, said. “They are loyalists. . . . They should line them up and dump them over Manila Bay.”

Art Ordonez, 45, a member of the Filipino Catholic Federation at St. Irenaeus Church in Cypress, said the rebels are able to find support by buying it.

“You give a guy food to fill his stomach, he’ll do anything you ask him to,” he said.

The country may not be ready for democracy, he said. “You can buy people (to support the rebels) because they are so hungry.”

Ordonez, 45, who came to the United States in 1967, said he has been unable to contact relatives in the Philippines since Thursday night.

Ramon A. Alcaraz, a former Philippine navy commodore who was once jailed by Marcos, said that the coup attempt is part of the remaining “corrupting influence of Mr. Marcos.”

Alcaraz, a resident of Orange and friend of Aquino, said that his wife is visiting the country and has called to tell him that she is safe.

Rebamontan, the Anaheim priest, was among those who cheered when Aquino came to power in 1986 after 20 years of former President Ferdinand Marcos’ authoritarian rule. After Marcos imposed martial law, Rebamontan left his homeland in 1976.

“The government wanted to control everything--even seminaries,” he said.

That situation was quite different in his most recent visit, when he visited his mother, brother, sister and other relatives. He said that restrictions had been lifted on everything from speech to traveling in and out of the country.

Another Anaheim priest who asked not to be identified said that those who oppose Aquino have expected her to solve economic problems caused by Marcos. He said that during a visit to the Philippines in 1986, an economist told him it would take up to 10 years to repair the damage to the economy caused by the former leader.

“It’s beyond her control, in a way,” he said. “It would be worse if someone else were there. I think Filipinos know that. There is not one there who can take over.”

The Anaheim priest said that any new leader would have the same problems.