Marcos, Cory Swap Barbs as Imelda Trills Love Song

President Ferdinand E. Marcos and Corazon Aquino campaigned in their home districts today. He called her a deceptive snake who speaks “honeyed words,” and she called him an oppressor.

Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were welcomed to his home province of Ilocos Norte by the provincial governor--their 27-year-old son Bong Bong. Their daughter Imee, a member of the National Assembly, also was there.

At a rally in Laoag, the provincial capital, Imelda Marcos sang two love songs to her husband in the local dialect, Ilocano.

Marcos, 68, referred to Aquino, 52, as a “very daring young lady” for saying she will order him jailed and imprisoned if she takes office.

Aquino has said only that she would put Marcos on trial for the assassination of her husband, Benigno, a leading opposition politician.

An Apple From Iraq

Imelda Marcos gave her husband an apple she brought back from a recent visit to Iraq, and Marcos said of his challenger: “You watch out for the snake who deceives you and misleads you, who has nice and honeyed words and has only sincerity to offer, not any program of government.”

The crowds at today’s campaign appearances were vastly different.

Those greeting Marcos were organized and well-behaved. The estimated 100,000 who turned out for their beloved “Cory” lined the roads, leaned out of windows to cheer and ran along beside her motorcade.

“For too long Marcos has suppressed us!” Aquino said through a megaphone. “We will no longer allow ourselves to be oppressed!”

The Supreme Court heard arguments on the legality of the Feb. 7 special presidential election in which Marcos and Aquino are the candidates. A former vice president said the vote should be held even if it is unconstitutional, because the alternative could be chaos.

‘Do Not Stop Election’

“If the court does not believe that it is constitutional . . . declare it so, but we beg you, do not stop the election,” former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez said.

After the hearing, the court adjourned until Wednesday without reaching a decision.

In a brief interview with Associated Press today, Marcos acknowledged trouble in the Philippine military and said he has ordered the armed forces commander, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, and his deputy, Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos, to stop “rivalries” between their supporters.

Ramos temporarily replaced Ver while the commander was on trial with 24 other soldiers and a civilian in the assassination of Benigno Aquino.

Marcos reinstated Ver last month after all defendants were acquitted of the killing.