Vote Tally Slow in Philippines : Marcos, Aquino Claim Victory; Count Continues

Slow official election returns gave President Ferdinand E. Marcos a narrow edge Saturday over his opponent, Corazon Aquino, but both candidates claimed victory on the basis of unofficial counts.

The government election commission had counted fewer than 200,000 of the millions of votes cast in Friday’s presidential election, and gave Marcos a margin of less than 3,000. The archipelago has 26 million voters in 90,000 precincts, and final figures were not expected for days.

At least 30 people were reported killed on election day, most of them by gunfire. There were reports of intimidation, vote buying, ballot-box switching and other irregularities.

Two unofficial pro-Marcos tallies showed him well ahead, but Aquino had a strong lead in the count by a citizens’ poll-watching group.

‘Shape the Returns’

U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, head of an official American observer delegation, told reporters it appeared that Marcos’ government was trying to “shape the returns” to its advantage by reporting votes from outlying areas while holding back results from Manila.

“The Manila vote has been held down by systematic harassment,” Lugar said. “My own political judgment is that the government concluded the results from Manila would not be good.”

“The trend is clear and irreversible. The people and I have won and we know it,” Aquino said in a statement released early Saturday, 10 hours after the polls closed at 3 p.m. Friday (11 p.m. Thursday PST).

Marcos, who has ruled the Philippines for two decades, said in an interview on government television that the results available “indicate that I probably have won these elections.” He had predicted Friday that he would win by 63% and would be disappointed if his vote margin was less than 3 million.

Charges Swapped

Aquino, 53, calls the 68-year-old president an evil dictator and blames him for the 1983 assassination of her husband, Benigno, who was Marcos’ chief political rival. Marcos says she would lead the nation toward communism.

Rene Saguisag, a lawyer and an Aquino spokesman, said the election was “the dirtiest we have ever had.”

Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, who is deputy military commander and was charged with keeping the peace, called it “the most peaceful election in recent memory,” and added: “The true winner in this election is democracy.”

The government election commission gave Marcos 83,495 votes to 80,602 for Aquino 15 hours after the polls closed.

Vote Counts Vary

Media Poll Count ‘86, organized by pro-Marcos newspapers, had the president leading by 2,947,190 votes to 2,428,756 on Saturday morning. A count by pro-Marcos broadcasters put the president in front by 862,649 to 749,907.

The news was different, however, at the National Movement for Free Elections. The citizens’ poll-watching organization, known as Namfrel, said at 8 a.m. Saturday, 17 hours after voting ended, that Aquino had 1,353,739 votes and Marcos 998,097.

The organization is supported by the Catholic Church, U.S. officials, business groups and a labor union that once supported Marcos.

An election commission member threatened to make the citizens’ group stop counting if its results proved “misleading.”

‘Day of Courage’

Cardinal Jaime L. Sin, archbishop of Manila and spiritual leader of the predominant Roman Catholic community, called the election a “day of courage and hope” and appealed for calm. “Whatever may have happened today, and what will still happen, don’t be afraid, don’t be discouraged, keep calm, do not be provoked to violence,” he said.

Namfrel called for volunteers to help guard ballot boxes in the Manila suburbs of Pasay and Makati. Hundreds of people, many carrying sticks and candles, watched over ballots from precincts Aquino was said to have won.

Lugar, an Indiana Republican who is co-leader of the 20-member American team that was allowed into polling stations, said: “I am deeply disturbed by the delays in the count. I plead with whoever is holding up the count to free it, let it go, so we can see what the will of the people is.”

He also said “a very disturbing pattern of incidents” emerged in the voting. Lugar visited a dozen voting centers outside Manila on Friday and was told by poll watchers of missing ballots, many voters turned away because their names were missing from the registration rolls, and intimidation of some voters and opposition campaign workers.

Photographers Shot At

Shots were fired at American photographers who said they were taking pictures of masked men stuffing ballot boxes in Concepcion, Benigno Aquino’s hometown.

Jaime Opinion, an election commission member, told reporters: “We will not hesitate to stop Namfrel’s quick count to prevent them from misleading the people into believing that one candidate has won.”

He said no attempt would be made to stop the pro-Marcos operation Media Count ’86 because it did not have an agreement, as the poll-watching group did, to coordinate its figures with the commission.

Victorino Savellano, chairman of the commission, called the Namfrel results “spurious.” He said many of its tallies were not taken from reports signed by election officials.

‘The Real Results’

Joe Concepcion, a prominent Manila businessman who is chairman of Namfrel, said the commission should not have allowed the pro-Marcos publishers’ group to release its figures, which he said came from unauthorized sources.

“Our answer to Commissioner Jaime Opinion is: We will see what we can do in order to make sure that the people come to know the real results of the election.”

Concepcion claimed that the commission failed to accredit poll watchers in several provinces. His organization put 500,000 volunteers in the field as poll watchers.

Government television broadcast results from Media Count ’86 and a group of broadcasters whose figures also showed Marcos ahead. It did not give the Namfrel tally.

Killings Reported

It was not clear whether the unofficial returns were coming from areas that had been expected to favor Marcos or Aquino.

The official Philippine News Agency reported most of the election-day killings, including the slaying of nine national police officers and two schoolteachers in an ambush on Mindanao island just before the polls opened.

It said reports indicated that members of the communist New People’s Army attacked as police escorted the teachers and election officials to a voting station with ballot boxes. The communist insurgency in the Philippines has been growing in recent years.

Other killings were reported in Misamis Oriental, Capiz, Albay, Northern Samar and Pampanga provinces.

Rebels Attacked Soldiers

Military officials in the southern Mindanao city of Davao said rebels attacked soldiers who were on their way to protect a polling place, and three people were killed.

Disturbances by supporters of both sides were reported at some voting stations.

Aquino said in her statement claiming victory: “The Marcos spell is broken. The myth of his invincible machine has been shattered. Against his guns, against his goons and against his gold, the Filipino people have prevailed.”