MARCOS: Political Rivals United for Philippine Vote : Aquino, Laurel Join Forces to Face Marcos in Election

Opposition leaders Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel joined forces Wednesday night and agreed to run on a unified ticket against President Ferdinand E. Marcos in the Feb. 7 election.

The surprise announcement, coming three days after their unity talks collapsed, presents what many Filipinos regard as the strongest possible combination for the opposition effort to end Marcos’ 20-year rule here.

Aquino and Laurel reached an agreement to run under the banner of the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO), Laurel’s political party, after intervention by Philippine Cardinal Jaime L. Sin. Earlier, Aquino had balked at running on the UNIDO ticket.

Under their agreement, “Cory” Aquino, 52, will run for president, leading the ticket with an image of political morality that is, in part, a legacy of the 1983 assassination of her husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., the opposition’s most prominent leader at his death.

“Doy” Laurel, 57, will run for vice president, bringing to the ticket the strength of the UNIDO political machine, which scored well in the 1984 parliamentary elections and holds the most opposition seats in the National Assembly.

“This is a ticket that scares the daylights out of Marcos,” said Aquino supporter Homobono Adaza.

Marcos was formally nominated for president by his ruling KBL Party early Wednesday. He named former Foreign Minister Arturo Tolentino, a KBL maverick and sometime critic of Marcos’ policies, as his running mate.

In his 50-minute acceptance speech, Marcos accused the opposition of practicing the “politics of national degradation and slander,” setting the tone for a campaign that promises to be marked by tough rhetoric.

Aquino and Laurel filed new petitions of candidacy at 10:45 p.m., just beating a Wednesday midnight deadline. Both filed under the UNIDO banner, a concession to Laurel that seemingly assures that his party will be designated the dominant opposition party for the election. This will permit it to place ballot examiners in the polls, a safeguard against fraud.

Laurel had broken off the unity talks Sunday, saying Aquino refused to run under the conservative UNIDO banner after he had agreed to foresake his presidential hopes and take the second spot on a combined ticket. She had wanted to run under the aegis of her own newly formed party, Laban ng Bayan (Fight and Country), a coalition of leftist and moderate politicians.

Grateful to Laurel

“Unity is not easy for the opposition because of their varied views,” Aquino said after she reversed herself. “But the most important thing is we are united now.”

Aquino, a political novice, said she is grateful to Laurel “for this very great sacrifice” in accepting the vice presidential spot.

“It’s now a Cory-Doy ticket under UNIDO,” said Laurel.

On Sunday, Laurel had said he was willing to give up his presidential ambitions but would not “sacrifice my principles or my party.”

Opposition spokesmen said Cardinal Sin, an often outspoken critic of the Marcos regime, played a role in bringing the opposition leaders together. He reportedly had met with them several times, separately and together, since Sunday.

The cardinal was upset by the Dec. 2 court verdict that cleared the armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, and 25 others of murder and conspiracy charges in the assassination of Aquino’s husband. He said at the time that the Philippine people would deliver a response to the verdict on election day.

‘Worn-Out Shoes’

Marcos’ choice of Tolentino, presenting a formidable KBL ticket, also may have pushed Aquino and Laurel toward agreement, although Joker Arroyo, a human rights lawyer and Aquino backer, derided Tolentino as “a pair of worn-out shoes.”

Arroyo also raised an often-heard opposition opinion that Marcos will use his reputed influence over the Supreme Court to void the election on constitutional grounds, particularly now that the opposition has united. Marcos, however, has said he believes the election bill is constitutional and that he would prefer to meet a unity ticket so the opposition would have no excuses if it loses.

Both sides now have rejected a Philippine political tradition that calls for geographic distribution on a ticket. All four candidates are natives of the main island of Luzon, Marcos from the province of Ilocos Norte, Tolentino from Manila, Aquino from Tarlac and Laurel from Batangas.

Aquino and Laurel were scheduled to begin their campaign today in Batangas.

At the KBL convention, Marcos, wearing a multicolored, striped shirt, was literally carried into the hall by his supporters. The room was draped with posters declaring, “Marcos stals subok sa krisis “ (tempered in crisis).

Calls Foes Negative

In accepting the KBL (New Society Movement) nomination for a new six-year term, the president lashed the opposition time and again as a negative force.

“The opposition has done nothing but talk and, worse than that, slander the entire Filipino people,” the 68-year-old Marcos said.

He then recited a litany of statistics he said demonstrate the social and economic gains his regime has brought to the Philippines.

Addressing more than 8,000 KBL delegates in a hotel conference room or watching on television monitors outside, Marcos said of his opponents, “Lies and deception . . . have marked their activity in our political life.”

His selection of the vigorous, 75-year-old Tolentino as the vice presidential nominee had been rumored, but there were other contenders and Marcos held the announcement until the end of his speech.

Tolentino, dressed informally in a red polo shirt, said he was “very pleasantly surprised.”

Was Fired by Marcos

Last February, Marcos dismissed him as foreign minister because he had criticized some of the president’s foreign service appointments.

Tolentino recalled a dispute with the president in late 1983, when Tolentino was pushing for a restoration of the vice presidency, eliminated by Marcos under martial law a decade earlier. He said Marcos told him, “I have an allergy for vice presidents.”

“I hope when you get elected you will have no allergy for Tolentino,” the vice presidential nominee said, turning to Marcos.

Political analysts said the selection of Tolentino might also cause divisions in the ruling party. Other aspirants for the post reportedly suggested that a Tolentino appointment would be seen as a reward for disloyalty.

The nominee last month had questioned the constitutionality of the snap elections called by Marcos a year before they were scheduled. Outside the conference hall, he said he would leave the question to the Supreme Court, which is considering more than 10 petitions to void the February election.