Huge Manila Crowd Cheers Aquino : Marcos Booed at Biggest Political Rally Ever in Philippines

The biggest political rally in Philippine history filled Manila’s major public park with hundreds of thousands of chanting, praying, singing supporters of Corazon Aquino today as she wound up her campaign for the presidency.

The crowd mocked and booed President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his wife, his children and even the nearby Manila Hotel owned by his government, and created a roar that could be heard for blocks around. Voting is Friday.

Reporters said it was impossible to put a number on the men, women and children who walked, ran, danced and sang their way to the rally. They said it was well over 500,000, but a police spokesman at the scene said: “I’ve never seen anything like it. . . . It could be a million.”

Sixth of Population

Aquino organizers put the crowd at 1 million--a sixth of Metropolitan Manila’s population.

Earlier in the day, Marcos backed off from a planned debate on a U.S. television program, challenging Aquino instead to debate him on local television.

Marcos did not completely reject their planned appearance on ABC’s “Nightline” program Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) but said it would diminish Philippine dignity and that their first debate should be on local television.

“This first debate between two presidential aspirants should not be sponsored by an American television network,” Marcos said in a statement to foreign news agencies.

“To preserve the dignity of our country and our individual dignities as presidential candidates, we should appear before a Philippine television audience, before we start subjecting ourselves to a debate before a foreign audience, moderated by a foreigner, no matter how much we respect him.”

‘Still Possible’

A Marcos press aide, Rodolfo T. Reyes, said in a telephone interview: “What the president is saying is that if the local debate occurs tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, then it’s still possible to hold the ‘Nightline’ debate. It’s just that any debate should first be before a Filipino audience.”

Asked why Marcos agreed to the “Nightline” debate in the first place if he thought it lacked dignity, Reyes replied, “That we don’t know.”

Throngs of Filipinos in cars, on foot and some on horse-drawn carts paraded noisily across Manila earlier today toward the last big rally for Aquino.

In a scene reminiscent of the massive funeral for her assassinated husband, Benigno, in August, 1983, Roxas Boulevard filled with people wearing her campaign color, yellow, chanting and singing under a rain of confetti. Fireworks exploded along the traffic-jammed route.

Marcos Due Wednesday

Marcos, who has drawn crowds of less than 20,000 at most of his campaign rallies in Manila, is due to appear at the same park Wednesday night. Aquino will spend the last day of the campaign in her home province of Tarlac, north of the capital.

International observers invited to watch for cheating and violence on polling day began arriving in Manila. The first group, a 44-member party sponsored by the U.S. Republican and Democratic parties, will fan out across the country to watch balloting in trouble-prone provinces.

A second group, a 20-member official U.S. Delegation led by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has said he doubts whether the elections can be free and fair, is due Wednesday.