Prelate gives guidance to anti-Marcos pair

Press, 13 December 1985, Page 6

Prelate gives guidance to anti-Marcos pair

NZPA-AP Manila With Cardinal Jaime Sin giving “moral counsel,” the Philippines opposition leaders, Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel, united late on Thursday against Ferdinand Marcos after he picked a party maverick as his Vice-Presidential choice.

In a last-minute act Mr Laurel abandoned his Presidential ambitions and agreed to run as Mrs Aquino’s Vice-President, setting up what many Filipinos consider to be the strongest possible ticket against Mr Marcos.

Making her own concession, Mrs Aquino agreed to run under the banner of Mr Laurel’s United Nationalist Democratic Organisation.

Mrs Aquino, widow of the assassinated opposition leader, Benigno Aquino, and Mr Laurel, a former senator, filed for their united candidacy one hour before the midnight filing deadline for the special election, on February 7. “You must help me talk to Doy (Laurel),” a top Church source quoted Mrs Aquino as telling Cardinal Sin when she went to the Archbishop of Manila’s home on Tuesday, after opposition unification talks collapsed. The source said that Cardinal Sin had told Mrs Aquino, “I will tell him what I tell you. You must think about these problems very seriously and you must ask yourself this question: can you hope to win if you are divided? Be ready to sacrifice.”

Mr Laurel went to see Cardinal Sin, the Philippines’ most influential religious leader and a frequent Marcos critic, at noon

on Wednesday. “The cardinal told him the same thing,” said the source. “He (Sin) did not ask to mediate,” the source said. “Many people were saying that only the cardinal can solve the rift but the cardinal did not initiate anything. Both (Mrs Aquino and Mr Laurel) came on their own.

“He gave some advice, provided moral counsel, that’s all. But he did not take sides.” A few hours earlier Mr Marcos named Arturo Tolentino, his Foreign Minister until he fired him earlier this year, as his Vice-Presi-dent. But doubts remained whether the election would be held at all. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear petitions next week from various groups questioning the constitutionality of the special vote. Some opposition leaders believe that Mr Marcos will prod the court to cancel the election.

Mr Tolentino has disputed the legality of the election,

saying that Mr Marcos could not hold it unless he first created a vacancy in the Presidency by stepping down. Mr Marcos, who has ruled since 1966, said that he wanted to prove to critics that Filipinos still supported him. Unity talks between the two opposition presidential contenders fell apart last week-end. Mr Laurel had said that he was willing to yield the Presidential candidacy to Mrs Aquino but insisted that she run under Unido, which Aquino followers regard as a conservative group that would hamper meaningful change. “It means I am subordinating personal interests to national interests,” Mr Laurel said after filing his candidacy for vice-presi-dent.

Mrs Aquino said that she was thankful to Mr Laurel “for this very great sacrifice.”

• In Washington a House of Representatives’ subcommittee began hearings yesterday into allegations that

Mr Marcos and his wife, Imelda, have accumulated extensive real estate and other holdings in the United States.

The hearings were closed. The House foreign affairs sub-committee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, headed by Stephen Solarz (Dem., New York), had had limited success in obtaining the information it sought, said congressional sources. Lawyers for three of the witnesses said that their clients would not be able to supply all the information the subcommittee sought because of lawyer-client privileges and insufficient time to respond to the requests. The issue of the Marcos wealth has been a focus of opposition allegations in Manila as well as published reports in the United States, but none of the holdings cited in those reports or charges are listed in the Marcos names.

It is not illegal for foreigners like the Marcos family to own American real estate or other property. But the Philippines’ opposition leaders have said that such properties were acquired with money from Government coffers in Manila.

Yesterday’s hearing was part of an attempt to try to penetrate the layers of corporations, lawyers, and representatives and see whether the assertions can be confirmed.

The Marcos family has denied owning real estate in the United States.