Marcos ‘called coup leaders’

Press, 15 July 1986, Page 10

Marcos ‘called coup leaders’

NZPA-AFP . Manila ’ The deposed Philippines President, Ferdinand Marcos, was in' touch with leaders of last week’s coup attempt through telephone calls to and from his exile home in Hawaii, a Manila Hotel official said yesterday.

The hotel’s chief executive officer, Victor Sison, also said the hotel, which the rebels turned Into their headquarters, would bill the coup leader, Arturo Tolentino, and some 20 others for 4.5 million pesos ($412,073) in actual losses.

Whether or' not they pay, the hotel will sue them to recover a similar amount in potential income scared away by the incident. Mr Marcos has denied involvement in the failed coup against President Corazon Aquino.

The famed hotel was occupied by thousands of

civilians and some 300 armed troops for about 36 hours after Mr Tolentino proclaimed himself “acting president” as Mrs Aquino was visiting a southern city on July 6. Mr Sison showed billing slips made out by hotel telephone operators for six calls to Mr Marcos’s home by the coup participants before and during the hotel takeover.

Eight calls were placed through the hotel switchboard but two did not get through, and operators listed at least two calls by Mr Marcos to the hotel, he said, adding that operators had managed to listen in on some of the conversations. Mr Sison refused to disclose what the operators heard, saying that it was “restricted information” passed on to higher authorities who were about to start an official probe into the incident