Plot thwarted

Press, 28 February 1986, Page 6

Plot thwarted

NZPA-Reuter Manila Philippines’ security forces had foiled a plot to kill the Defence Minister, Mr Juan Ponce Enrile, and arrested a pro-Mar-cos Mayor and eight bodyguards with automatic weapons stacked in two cars, a military spokesman said yesterday. Colonel Greg Honasan said Rodolfo Farinas, Mayor of Laoag, in Mr Marcos’s home province of Ilocos Norte, had been arrested with his associates at Defence Ministry headquarters on Wednesday.

Mr Enrile was holding a press conference. Security officials said Farinas was inside the building trying to get close to him when detained. Colonel Honasan said the weapons — Armalite AK47 automatic rifles and Israeli Uzi sub-machine-guns — were among 16 weapons found in two of the group’s three cars parked near Mr Enrile’s helicopter. The Aquino Government ordered yesterday the immediate release of 33 people who had been imprisoned for alleged political crimes and said another 400 such cases were under study. Lieutenant-General Fidel Ramos, the new Government’s military chief, announced the releases after an early morning Mass where one prisoner, identified as Jaime Verdan, told the crowd, “I cannot say how happy I am. I thank (people’s power) and God.”

Human rights groups have estimated that about 500 people were held under the Presidential Detention Act, adopted during the Marcos regime.