Aquino Rejects Charges of Naivete

Presidential candidate Corazon Aquino, calling herself “a crusading housewife” and the “unorthodox choice of an oppressed people,” told several thousand partisan business leaders Monday that she is not as naive and noncommittal as her critics charge.

She outlined several specific acts that she would take in her first 100 days as president.

In her last major address before Friday’s special election, Aquino sought to portray her opponent, President Ferdinand E. Marcos, as “a Filipino pharaoh” who has built “a pyramid of disgrace” and kept his people “chained to their misery” for the 20 years he has been in office.

‘Basket Case’

“When Mr. Marcos began his rule in 1965, our country was touted as the economic miracle of Asia, next only to Japan,” Aquino told the American, European and Filipino Chambers of Commerce after lunch in Manila’s Makati business district.

“Today, we have earned the unflattering title of the basket case of Southeast Asia. In 20 years, Mr. Marcos has stripped legitimate entrepreneurs of their ability to compete and has rewarded his friends with fiefdoms which have enabled them, like vampires, to suck the lifeblood of a once-vigorous economy.”

Aquino, who has no experience in government, pledged that if elected, she will repeal all new fuel, electricity and business turnover taxes; make seeds and fertilizers tax-exempt to ease the plight of the country’s farmers, and dismantle government-sanctioned monopolies run by Marcos’ friends in the Philippine coconut and sugar industries.

The 53-year-old widow of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., the slain opposition leader, also vowed that in her first 100 days she will reinstate the suspended right of habeas corpus to help free hundreds of political prisoners detained by the Marcos government; abolish Marcos’ costly Office of Media Affairs, which often dictates policy to the nation’s press and television, and streamline the armed forces so that they can perform better against a burgeoning Communist insurgency in the country.

Asked after her speech how she plans to deal with the insurgency, which reportedly involves 15,000 armed rebels in all 73 Philippine provinces, Aquino said she will offer the rebels amnesty in exchange for a six-month cease-fire.

She said she is confident that the rebels will agree because “I am more trustworthy than Mr. Marcos.” She added: “However, if they do not do so, then I will have to use the military force on them.”

Aquino answered charges that have appeared in the American press that her position on the insurgency problem is naive.

Amnesty Offer

“I was, in fact, labeled too naive to think that I can possibly convert the hard-core Communists,” she said. “Let me clearly state now that I am offering amnesty to all those who have joined the NPA (the Communist New People’s Army) but who are not out-and-out Communists and who will lay down their arms, renounce all forms of violence and pledge allegiance to the new government.

“I am confident there are many who belong in this category, and, in fact, the hard-core constitute a very small minority. . . . I am not really so naive.”

Throughout her speech Monday, Aquino referred to criticism from moderate opponents that her campaign has been long on rhetoric but short on specifics. Marcos himself chided her Monday in a speech to religious leaders at the presidential palace. He said her entire campaign is built on “personal recriminations and character assassination” aimed at him.

‘Purgation and Purification’

In response, Aquino offered what she called her “architectural plan . . . for what must be undone” from the Marcos years.

What is required, she said, is “a process of purgation and purification” that would include calling for a constitutional convention, purging the Supreme Court and possibly replacing its chief justice with a woman and retiring the overage generals who form the bedrock of Marcos’ support within the military.

But her top priority, she said, would be “the problem of mass poverty, unemployment and underemployment, which afflicts 75% of all Filipinos,” by attacking the problem “with the zeal of a crusading housewife let loose in a den of world-class thieves.”