U.S. Reacts Strongly Against Aquino Verdict : State Dept. Calls It ‘Difficult to Reconcile’ With Earlier Inquiry

The acquittal on murder charges of the Philippine armed forces chief of staff brought an uncharacteristically sharp reaction from the Reagan Administration on Monday, while congressmen widely condemned the verdict, and a leading Democrat called for an end to military aid to the strategic Pacific nation.

The State Department, moving to distance itself from President Ferdinand E. Marcos, said that “it’s very difficult to reconcile” the verdict exonerating Gen. Fabian C. Ver and 25 others with the conclusions of the independent Agrava investigating commission that Ver and others plotted the August, 1983, murder of opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

In a series of events certain to aggravate tensions in the strife-torn nation, a three-judge panel in Manila early Monday rejected the commission’s findings, and Marcos soon reinstated Ver as the nation’s military chief.

Verdict Was Expected

The verdict of not guilty had long been expected since the Philippine Supreme Court, which rarely rules against Marcos, last August threw out most of the evidence against Ver developed by the Agrava board.

The 65-year-old general, the president’s distant cousin and confidant, is blamed by critics both in the Philippines and abroad for condoning widespread military corruption that has hampered efforts to fight a growing Communist-led insurgency.

Ver took a leave of absence as military chief while he was on trial, but Marcos promised to reinstate him if he was acquitted. Under growing U.S. pressure, Marcos recently hinted that Ver’s return might be brief.

Growing instability in the onetime U.S. territory is fast becoming one of the Administration’s most pressing foreign policy concerns. Pentagon and State Department analysts have predicted that guerrillas could fight government forces to a strategic stalemate in three to five years unless significant military, economic and political reforms are implemented.

Some military strategists have begun devising plans for expensive relocation to other Pacific islands of the facilities at two giant U.S. Philippine military installations--Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base--should security at those strategic bases be threatened.

Aquino, the only moderate political foe feared by Marcos in recent years, was gunned down as he was being escorted by soldiers from a plane at Manila airport on his return to the country from three years of U.S. exile.

Hit Man Accused

The government said that a Communist hit man named Rolando Galman penetrated a tight security net at the airport and shot the 50-year-old Aquino at point-blank range in the head before being killed himself by security forces.

But the Agrava commission, after nearly a year of deliberations, blamed the military for the murder and said that Galman was a small-time hoodlum who was set up to look like an assassin.

“It is very difficult to reconcile the exemplary, thorough work of the Agrava board and the conclusions it reached after a year of hard work with the outcome of this trial,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said Monday.

Noting also that Marcos had indicated that he would conduct a “long overdue” reform of the military leadership, Redman said, “How the reinstatement of General Ver squares with President Marcos’ professed desire to initiate such reforms . . . is a question only he can answer.”

In a statement, Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia, denounced Monday’s verdict as a “mockery of justice” and said that U.S. military aid should be suspended because of Ver’s return to duty.

“With Gen. Ver in that position, there is no real hope of any military reforms, and in the absence of such reforms, our aid would be wasted anyway,” said Solarz.