U.S. Observers in Manila; Marcos Side Sees Meddling

A U.S. delegation arrived here Wednesday to observe Friday’s presidential election amid charges from supporters of President Ferdinand E. Marcos that its presence constitutes interference in the voting.

“This election is of great importance to the future of democracy in the Philippines, a major friend and ally of the United States,” said Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the delegation.

He quoted President Reagan as promising that “significantly larger” U.S. aid to the Philippines will be considered if the elections are free and fair.

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), co-chairman of the delegation, said: “We hope that we will be able to observe a free election. Certainly the procedures are in place.”

State Department officials have said they expect some vote fraud by Marcos’ supporters in an attempt to ensure his reelection. But Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Reagan Administration officials have said that they hope the presence of the delegation, as well as other observer teams, might deter massive abuses.

Marcos supporters charge that the observers are biased in favor of Marcos’ opponent, Corazon Aquino, and argue that their presence constitutes interference in the election.

“Whether they set up to deliberately interfere or not, in the end whatever they say will amount to interference,” said J.V. Cruz, a senior Marcos campaign adviser.

Cruz charged that Lugar has “tilted” toward Aquino by issuing statements critical of the election preparations, and scoffed at the 20-person delegation’s chances of deterring fraud in the country’s 86,500 polling places.

“In all fairness, how authoritative can they possibly be?” he asked. “How can 20 people determine what is going on in a country as big as this? They can’t deter anything. They will probably put everyone on their best behavior for as long as they’re there, but that’s all.”

Lugar denied any tilt toward Aquino. “We’re impartial,” he said.

And he said his delegation is acutely aware of the limits of its ability to prevent fraud. The members of the delegation plan to divide into several groups and fly aboard U.S. military aircraft to most of the Philippines’ major regions on election day.

Other organizations attempting to monitor the vote include the State Department, which is fielding about 15 observer teams of its own; delegations sponsored by the Democratic and Republican national committees; a Japanese official team, and a U.S. congressional delegation that is expected to arrive after election day.

The official U.S. observer group, led by Lugar and Murtha, is made up of Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.); Reps. Bob Livingston (R-La.), Bernard Dwyer (D-N.J.), Samuel S. Stratton (D-N.Y.), and California Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands); White House counsel Fred Fielding; Kansas Secretary of State Jack Brier; Colorado Secretary of State Natalie Meyer; former Oregon Secretary of State Norma Paulus; Allen Weinstein, president of the Center for Democracy at Boston University; Bishop Adam Maida of Green Bay, Wis.; U.S. News and World Report publisher Mortimer Zuckerman; former U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Van P. Smith; retired Adm. Robert Long; Larry Niksch, director of Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service; and Ben Wattenberg, American Enterprise Institute.