Marcos OKs 3-Week Vote Delay; Foes Hint of Boycott

President Ferdinand E. Marcos said Friday he would agree to postpone a special presidential election for three weeks, but Philippine opposition leaders warned that they will participate only if Marcos agrees to their demands and resigns first.

Marcos initially called the elections for Jan. 17 but joined members of his ruling party in Parliament in acceding to opposition demands for a later date. He also said he wants both the presidency and vice presidency on the ballot, despite support within his own party for a presidential ballot only.

“Feb. 7 would be manageable, but probably nothing beyond that,” the president told reporters in the city of Cebu, where he addressed a business forum Friday.

The warning by 14 opposition leaders, the heads of national and regional political parties who met for the first time since Marcos called the so-called snap election, raised the possibility of a boycott of the balloting.

States Conditions

“We have agreed that the opposition will participate provided that the elections are constitutional, fair and credible,” said National Unification Council spokesman Bren Guiao.

Guiao said the opposition would oppose a Marcos-backed bill establishing new rules for the election and would endorse a seven-point proposal by the Muslim Federal Party that includes a demand for Marcos’ resignation. Marcos has said he will submit his resignation--as required by the constitution, which allows special elections only when the presidency is vacant--but said it will take effect only if he loses the election.

Asked if there was a possibility that the opposition would boycott the election, Guiao said, “All options are open.”

“We don’t even know the ground rules,” said former Sen. Salvador Laurel, a leading candidate for the nomination. “For all you know, Marcos would like to find out our position, and he will take another position. We don’t want to telegraph our punches.”

Aquino Widow May Run

Meanwhile, the widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. hinted strongly that she may run against Marcos. In a written statement, Corazon Aquino said she was withdrawing from the committee of opposition parties that is trying to choose a single candidate to run against Marcos.

“I feel out of a sense of propriety that I should now inhibit myself from further personal participation in the task . . . of designing a formula for the selection of the united opposition’s common presidential candidate,” she said.

A political novice who has never held elective office, she had previously expressed a reluctance to run for the presidency, but she has been under growing pressure to become a candidate. Assemblywoman Eva Estrada Kalaw, another aspirant for the presidency, said Corazon Aquino’s statement “would imply that she’s running as a candidate.”

In Cebu, Marcos also said Gen. Fabian C. Ver, the armed forces chief of staff and a cousin of the president, would be automatically reinstated in office if he is acquitted of murder conspiracy charges in the 1983 assassination of Aquino. “For how long (he would be reinstated), we will decide when we get there,” Marcos said.