Evacuees see siege as ‘rent-a-crowd do’

Press, 8 July 1986, Page 10

Evacuees see siege as ‘rent-a-crowd do’

NZPA-AAP Manila Ninety-four Australians attending a business convention were moved overnight to escape Marcos loyalists besieging the Maiilla Hotel in a failed counter-revo-lution against the Government of President Corazon Aquino. The Australians, distributors and agents for the Perth-based firm, Kreepy Krauly Swimming Pool Cleaners, were smuggled down the service lift of the hotel at 4 a.m. and boarded buses awaiting outside the back door to be taken to the Sheraton Hotel. The convention leader, Terry Jackson, aged 46, of Perth, said all but a handful of his group had

been accounted for. Mr Jackson said those who had not turned up had gone out on the town that night and had probably checked into other hotels when they returned to the .Manila Hotel to find it under siege. The group was never in any danger or really worried as the loyalists crammed into the hotel lobby and blocked the stairs, he said. “We probably had two or three people coming seeking reassurance, but at no stage were we really worried,” he said. “if this is what happens under these circumstances it’s totaly different to how the media reports it in Australia. “It was very much a

rent-a-crowd sort of do, cum a Woodstock later in the night “The people in the lobby were rather like the Aboriginal embassies that we 'get on the lawns of Parliament House in Australia,” Mr Jackson said. “We’ll still be going through for another eight days. We’re still hoping to have all of our workshops and meetings,” he The advice was that all would soon be back to normal, he said. “It’s strange because last year we held our convention in Thailand Just a month before a coup there. “So it’s ‘apres moi le deluge’ as you might say,” Mr Jackson said.