Heavy poll turnout

Press, 3 February 1987, Page 6

Heavy poll turnout

NZPA-Reuter Manila

Millions of Filipinos went to the polls yesterday to vote on a Constitution after three explosions rocked Manila and two alleged supporters of the deposed President, Ferdinand Marcos, were arrested with 120 sticks of dynamite. The two suspects were arrested on Sunday evening with, said Manila police, enough explosives to destroy a 10-storey building. The men said the explosives were for fishing but the police said the men had planned to blow up vital Government installations in Manila to disrupt the plebiscite.

President Corazon Aquino, who succeeded Mr Marcos 11 months ago, is banking on a big win as a vote of confidence in her rule. The poll has been called a one-candidate Presidential election by some analysts and Mrs Aquino has stumped the country in a bid for an overwhelming “yes” vote. Hours before the polls opened three blasts rocked the business district of Makati and neighbouring Mandaluyong but no casualties were reported and the police said damage was minor. Unidentified men in speeding cars hurled two grenades at a vacant lot

near a radio station in . Makati and a church in Mandaluyong. In the same ■ district, a dynamite stick exploded near a roadside ' restaurant On the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, a Marcos stronghold, ajj guerrillas believed to be Muslim secessionists ambushed a lorry of plantation workers killing 13 and wounding eight. The 260,000-strong Armed Forces has been on red alert since a? botched military revolt last week. A heavy voter turnout was reported in many polling stations in Manilas and surrounding ; provinces. -4Sj||