Marcos a ‘Dying Dictator, Inveterate Liar’--Aquino

Opposition presidential candidate Corazon Aquino today unleashed her strongest attack yet against President Ferdinand E. Marcos, calling him “a dying dictator” and an “inveterate liar.”

Interrupted 33 times by applause from 1,500 businessmen and civic leaders packed in a ballroom of the posh Manila Hotel, Aquino outlined a political program focusing on constitutional reforms she intends to implement if she topples Marcos in the Feb. 7 election.

Aquino warned Marcos that if he cheats to win the election, she will issue and lead nationwide appeals for protests.

“I hate to think what an angry people can do if you frustrate their will in the coming elections,” the 52-year-old widow of slain opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. said.

‘Joke Built on Deceit’

Aquino said the parliamentary-style constitution Marcos approved after the declaration of martial law in 1972 was a “joke built on deceit and manipulation.”

“I am the first to admit that the Marcos dictatorship has been cleverly crafted by an evil genius. And I am the first to admit that that evil genius, allowed to run amok for 20 years, succeeded in foisting upon the nation a grim constitutional joke.

“He succeeded in ripping out the heart and soul of our old democratic system.”

Aquino accused Marcos of twisting her policy platforms and lambasted him as an “overgrown child.”

‘Will Stoop to Anything’

“This man is desperate. He will stoop to anything. Can you continue to allow an inveterate liar to govern you? Can we allow an inveterate liar to represent us in the family of nations?”

“No,” screamed the crowd.

She said a charge by Marcos that a member of the Aquino family has agreed to create an independent Muslim state in Mindanao in return for election support was “fabricated.”

“They are issues which only a dying dictator can think up,” she said. “Instead of making peace with God, he wastes his remaining days muddling the issues.”

State-run television, which has virtually ignored Aquino’s campaign and is now fighting an equal-time battle with her attorneys before the Commission on Elections, carried a 2 1/2-minute report of her speech on the evening news in an apparent concession.

Imelda Marcos calls Aquino unfeminine, Page 13.