Bloodshed must stop, says Aquino

Press, 16 January 1986, Page 8

Bloodshed must stop, says Aquino

NZPA-Reuter Manila The Opposition candidate in the Philippines, Mrs Corazon Aquino, says she will try to negotiate a ceasefire with communist rebels if she wins next month’s presidential election. “We must stop all this bloodshed,” she told about 12,000 supporters at a campaign rally at Roxas, on Panay island. “I will talk to the rebel leaders and ask for a ceasefire. I think it is better that we talk to them than just go on with the killings,” she

said. President Ferdinand Marcos, speaking during the campaign, said the Armed Forces chief, General Fabian Ver, might retire before the election on February 7, and hinted that his deputy, Lieutenant-General Fidel Ramos, could replace him. Mrs Aquino did not say if she had been in contact with the rebel New People’s Army and she again denied accusations by President Ferdinand Marcos that she had links with the communists. “Perhaps he is too old. He

doesn’t know what he is saying any more,” she said. President Marcos said “General Ver might retire before the elections. “The reason for that is apparently some foreign elements like the United States thinks General Ramos is someone who can be depended on.” Washington strongly objected to General Ver’s reinstatement as military chief after he was cleared by a court of involvement in the murder in 1983 of Aquino’s husband, the Opposition leader, Benigno Aquino.