Evacuation plans made by N.Z.

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 6

Evacuation plans made by N.Z.

PA Wellington The New Zealand Embassy in Manila has plans to evacuate New Zealanders from the Philippines if necessary, said a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday.

The spokesman said evacuation plans for the 350 New Zealanders in Manila had been drawn up after consultation between New Zealand Embassy staff in Manila and their American and Aus-

tralian counterparts. At his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said President Ferdinand Marcos should leave the Philippines to avoid “slaughter and mayhem.”

Mr Lange made his comment before President Marcos declared a state of emergency. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Wellington has set up a special Philippines monitoring unit at

its Stafford House headquarters. New Zealanders in the area of greatest risk in Quezon City, from where the anti-Marcos rebel leader, Lieutenant General Fidel Ramos, was conducting his operations, had been advised to take precautions, a Ministry spokesman said. Mr Lange said the New Zealand Government would not rule out a peacekeeping involvement.

The Minister of Defence, Mr O’Flynn, was unavailable for comment last evening on whether New Zealand troops could be sent to the Philippines on a peacekeeping mission.

Mr Lange said New Zealand would openly take the side of Mrs Corazon Aquino.

"It is inevitable when Mr Marcos is apparently on the verge of leaving the country?” he said. He described the Philippines as a country capable of social cohesion.

“It has a strong Catholic population which is capable, in my view, of providing some sense of dis-

cipline and order in the aftermath of this political upheaval.” Mr Lange said any future Government in the Philippines would probably want to maintain the American bases in the country.

The Australian Foreign Minister, Bill Hayden, yesterday called on President Marcos to retire for the good of his country, reports NZPA-AAP in Canberra. At the same time Mr Hayden suggested that much of Australia’s limited military aid was directed towards training of the very type of officers who were active in the anti-Marcos military reform group.