Civilians stranded in Manila

Press, 6 December 1989, Page 10

Civilians stranded in Manila

NZPA-Reuter Manila Renegade Philippine soldiers, making a last stand in Manila’s financial district after a failed coup bid, seemed ready yesterday to allow some stranded civilians safe passage out of the battle zone, but showed no sign of surrendering. Tourism Ministry officials said loyalist and rebel forces reached agreement in principle to allow all 262 guests to be evacuated from the Intercontinental Hotel, one of four luxury hotels caught up in the five-day face-off in the Philippine capital. The Tourism Director, Meynardo Carreon, said the agreement covered only the Intercontinental, one of 15 high-rise buildings in the Makati district grabbed by mutineers on Saturday as part of a coup attempt against the President, Corazon Aquino. Ministry officials estimate that there are about 5000 Filipinos and American, European and Japanese visitors trapped in Makati. “Hopefully they will agree on a building by building arrangement. We are keeping our fingers crossed,” Mr Carreon said. Foreign ambassadors in Manila had earlier appealed to Cardinal Jaime Sin, Archbishop of Manila, to broker a truce in the fighting to allow evacuation of their nationals. On Monday the United States President, George Bush, had called Mrs Aquino to pledge continued United States support but voiced great concern for the plight of trapped United States citizens. “Can we get those people out? I’m very concerned about their lives and safety,” he was quoted as saying. A White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said Mrs Aquino had assured Mr Bush that her forces were doing everything possible to protect Americans. A small number of the trapped

civilians ran the gauntlet of rooftop snipers yesterday morning and escaped in cars to other hotels along Manila Bay, in a sector unaffected by the fighting. Hopes of an early mass departure failed to materialise. Witnesses said eight buses adorned with white flags, big white crosses and “Tourism Evacuation Bus” banners arrived in late morning at a boulevard about 800 m from the nearest hotel. The Tourism Secretary, Peter Garrucho, and his Under-Secretary, Rafael Alunan, who were on the spot, said they planned to walk alone into Makati to assure themselves the situation was safe to send in the bus convoy. They said there were about 225 foreigners among the stranded at the Intercontinental, and a total of 1600 to 1700 spread between the four besieged hotels.

“We’re hoping that eventually all the guests can be evacuated,” Mr Garrucho said, but added that the tourism authorities needed firm word of a ceasefire before they went ahead. Members of the Government’s negotiating panel have been appealing to the mutineers to allow the buses sufficient time to enter the battle areas, where rebel snipers have dug in on the rooftops. One of the rebel leaders at the Intercontinental, a Captain Yan, said the guests were not hostages and were free to leave.

He added, though, that with sporadic shooting outside, some were hesitating. “If they want to go they can, but we advise them not to go.” The rebel captain, interviewed by telephone, accused the Government of waging black propaganda about the Makati fighting and called on reporters to go to the Intercontinental Hotel and see the situation for themselves.

"It’s government forces that are shooting people on the streets, it’s not us,” he said. A West German diplomat said his embassy was being inundated with calls from German nationals in the nearby residential villages asking whether they should try to escape.

“We cannot decide whether it’s safer to get out or stay in,” he said. The diplomat said the atmosphere seemed to have hardened after hopes on Monday that the mutineers would negotiate a surrender. Both sides were now apparently squaring off for further confrontation, he said.

In spite of claims by the Defence Minister, Fidel Ramos, at the weekend that loyalists had crushed the coup attempt, the sixth against Mrs Aquino in less than four years, the mutineers continued to control about 15 high-rise office and apartment blocks with heavy firepower. More than 100 people have died so far in the five days of violence in Manila.

Mrs Aquino, who has angrily accused the renegades of using civilians as a shield, has clearly hesitated to order an all-out assault on the rebel positions. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said United States officials saw no further need for American military intervention on behalf of the Aquino Government. At Mrs Aquino’s request, F-4 fighter jets from a United States air base north of Manila briefly provided cover for ground forces on Friday when rebel aircraft bombed the presidential palace. In spite of the continued fighting and a stand-off on Mactan Island, in the central province of Cebu, where rebels were holding a military air base, the spokesman said: “We do think the Government now has the situation under control.”