Attacks on Philippine President Criticized : Marcos Aide Calls U.S. Policy ‘Mindless’

President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ top campaign aide Monday sharply criticized Washington for a “mindless policy” toward the Philippines in distancing itself from Marcos.

“I think they’re botching it up simply by concentrating all these attacks on the president in order to bring about his defeat,” said Labor Minister Blas Ople, who is also chairman of Marcos’ reelection bid in the Feb. 7 special balloting.

Asked whether Marcos feels that he is being “sold out” by President Reagan, Ople said, “That is too harsh.” Instead, he said, Reagan is “retaining the right political instincts about his allies in the world but finds himself being overwhelmed by his advisers.”

He specifically named Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) as those working against Marcos in Washington.

Hearings, Observers

Solarz, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, has been holding hearings into the Marcoses’ real estate holdings in the United States. Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has expressed skepticism that the Feb. 7 election will be honest. He plans to lead an official observer team to monitor the voting.

Ople also said that recent disclosures about Marcos’ war record were “too perfect a coincidence” to be unrelated to the election. Marcos, who holds U.S. medals for gallantry that were awarded for actions before the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, built his political career in large part on a reputation as one of the nation’s greatest war heroes.

The reports referred to by Ople were based on military records recently released by the National Archives. They show that in turning down Marcos’ request for U.S. benefits after World War II, U.S. Army investigators called his claim of being the leader of an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit fraudulent and preposterous.

The Cabinet minister said the war record disclosures are “a deliberate attempt to cause him (Marcos) harm in these elections” and that the entire incident has “caused him pain.”

Meanwhile, Marcos’ opponent, Corazon Aquino, appeared before about 50,000 cheering and chanting supporters in the heart of Manila’s financial district of Makati in a hail of yellow confetti and firecrackers.

“I’m sure Marcos is very much afraid, and this is our day of liberation,” she told the crowd during the two-hour rally. Noting that she had visited the widows of several opposition supporters who had been killed in recent years, Aquino said, “I will fight for justice for all the victims of the Marcos regime.”

New York Holdings

Before Aquino spoke, several opposition leaders launched what one said would be the major thrust of their campaign in the 10 days remaining before the election. As thousands of employees of the surrounding high-rise banks and insurance buildings cheered, former Sen. Ernesto Maceda charged that Marcos and his wife, Imelda, had diverted vast amounts in government assets to buy personal property in New York and elsewhere in the United States.

“We’ll give Marcos another medal--for being the world champion of stealing,” Maceda said, after listing half a dozen luxury properties that the Marcos family is said to own in New York.

At Bacolod, in the economically racked and insurgency-troubled province of Negros Occidental, the president again raked the opposition ticket on the issue of communism and announced a series of pre-election moves to help the sugar industry.

He charged that Aquino, if she wins, may proclaim martial law and “take away the right to vote.”

“Now is the time to do something while you still have the vote,” he told a large audience at a college stadium, urging electoral support for his party, which ruled under martial law from 1972 to 1981.

Aid to Sugar Growers

Marcos announced these provisions to help the sugar industry, on which Negros is heavily dependent:

--A government guarantee for a 250-million-peso loan (nearly $14 million) to capitalize the privately operated sugar trading company called Philsuma. If the loan still is not granted, he said, he would move the 250 million pesos from the government’s so-called casino fund, the profits of the country’s legal casinos, to capitalize Philsuma until the loan is granted.

--A short-term credit of 1 billion pesos (about $56 million) to permit Philsuma to buy up surplus sugar on the domestic market to maintain a profitable price level. The credit would be granted by the central bank and repaid when the surplus is eventually sold.

--A cut in interest rates on sugar-crop loans granted by two government banks, to 16% from the current level of about 40%.

Times staff writer Nick B. Williams Jr. contributed to this article.