Assembly Fails to Decide Vote in Philippines

The Philippine Parliament, its galleries jammed with thousands of chanting supporters of opposition candidate Corazon Aquino, met today to decide the outcome of the fraud-tainted presidential election but made no progress.

Parliament adjourned, bogged down in procedural questions, four hours and six recesses after it met--without counting a single vote. Aquino warned the Marcos-dominated body, charged with declaring a winner, that its count would be closely watched.

Tension was high in the capital after an Aquino supporter in a truck bed holding up a “Marcos concede” poster was shot to death by a gunman riding in a Mercedes Benz and a second person was wounded.

127 People Killed

At least 127 people have been killed in two months of election violence. The government, fearing campus unrest, ordered Manila schools to remain closed today for the 14th straight day.

Conflicting, unofficial results of Friday’s election showed both Aquino and President Ferdinand E. Marcos ahead in the race, which was marred by charges of vote-buying, intimidation, ballot box theft, unexplained counting delays and a tabulation scandal.

Aquino supporters chanting “Cory, Cory” packed the galleries of the National Assembly and another 8,000 supporters of both candidates rallied outside. Riot police formed a phalanx between the two fist-waving groups.

One poster urged, “Marcos: Why not follow Duvalier?” referring to last week’s flight of Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier.

‘The People Have Won’

“Let me be absolutely clear,” Aquino told 5,000 supporters at a prayer rally earlier. “We are going to take power. The people have won this election. The only question left is when I shall take power in their name.”

Aquino warned members of Parliament, where Marcos’ KBL party holds a two-thirds majority, to be honest.

“The people will watch (Parliament’s) every move and I serve warning to its members they must act like the representatives of the people they claim to be,” she said.

Nearly four days after the polls closed, two unofficial vote tallies differed significantly.

An independent watchdog group, the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections, or NAMFREL, said Aquino was leading with 6,658,838 votes, or 53%, after 60% of the ballots had been counted. The U.S. delegation had expressed confidence in the NAMFREL tally.

But the government Commission on Elections, Comelec, which has tallied only 28% of the nation’s 86,036 precincts, showed Marcos winning 51% of the vote.