Don’t Back ‘Dictator,’ Aquino Warns U.S.

Presidential candidate Corazon Aquino warned the United States and the West on Tuesday not to throw their support to “a failing dictator” as she and her followers groped for a strategy to deal with the prolonged vote count that many say is sure to return President Ferdinand E. Marcos to power.

Aquino, who has claimed victory in the still-unresolved election of last Friday, read the warning from a prepared text at a press conference hours after a confident Marcos offered her a seat in a new, high-level advisory board he pledged to form after he has been proclaimed the winner.

Marcos, who is struggling to lend legitimacy to a crucial election marred by fraud and violence, made his conciliatory offer at the presidential palace after President Reagan called on both Aquino and Marcos to avoid violence and work together to build a democratic government.

The 68-year-old Marcos, who has been in power for 20 years, nine of them under martial law, came as close as he has yet to proclaiming himself the winner.

Chides Aquino

“They know they have lost the election,” he said of the opposition, and he chided Aquino for her intransigence. “Let’s act like politically mature men,” he said, adding that the independent vote tallies Aquino uses as the basis for her claim to be leading are wrong.

“Let’s forget all this childish display of petulance just because our figures don’t agree,” he said.

Two sets of unofficial figures continued to offer conflicting pictures. The count by the government’s Commission on Elections, with 53% of the precincts reporting, showed Marcos leading Aquino, 52% to 48%. The count by the independent poll-monitoring group, the National Movement for Free Elections, with 64% of the precincts reporting, showed Aquino ahead of Marcos, 52% to 48%. Both had hoped to have “quick counts” completed 48 hours after the polls closed Friday afternoon.

The official, legally binding count is the one compiled by election officials and certified after a canvass by the National Assembly, which is controlled by Marcos’ party.

Assembly Canvass Drags

The National Assembly spent several hours Tuesday debating procedural questions and hearing objections by opposition members to some tally sheets on the grounds that they lacked the proper seal or authorizing signatures. Finally, when the opposition noted that there was no longer a quorum present, the canvass was put off until today.

As the assembly continued the slow canvass, a process that may take as long as a week, it became clear that no reconciliation is likely between Aquino and the man she suspects ordered the 1983 assassination of her husband, opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

Referring to “our moment of national agony,” Aquino nervously read out a statement that made it clear she has no intention of giving in to Marcos. She said he “is seeking constitutional respectability for his shameful electoral theft.”

In an apparent response to Reagan’s call for peace, Aquino said: “May I also reassure the world that we mean to conclude this business as we began it--peacefully but determinedly. Our power has been the people and their spirit; his has been guns.

“We hope we do not have to mobilize this nation. We hope that Mr. Marcos will find it in himself to concede now so that I can begin the process of reconciliation.”

Aquino Makes Appeal

But in a statement her advisers refused to say was directed specifically at Reagan, Aquino went on: “Let me appeal to all friends of democracy and supporters of freedom abroad. . . . Do not make the mistake, in the name of short-sighted self-interest, of coming to the support of a failing dictator.”

She ended her press conference with a curt “Thank you,” refused to answer any questions, then sequestered herself in her office with two State Department officials and a congressional aide from Washington.

Afterward, all three men refused to comment on the meeting. But several independent Western analysts said that Washington was probably urging Aquino to back off from her promise to lead daily street demonstrations in Manila if she is declared the loser, and to sit down and reconcile her differences with Marcos.

Throughout the day Marcos’ aides and spokesmen rejoiced in an erroneous Philippine government news agency report from Washington that Reagan had predicted Marcos’ victory and endorsed his continued presidency.

Sees Reagan Support

At one point during the canvass in the assembly, Information Minister Gregorio Cendana told Philippine journalists: “This is good news. President Reagan is giving some moral support to President Marcos.”

But a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy denied that Reagan has endorsed a Marcos victory. An embassy official, speaking on condition he not be identified by name, said that U.S. Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth fears that any premature recognition of Marcos’ reelection could endanger Washington’s attempts to persuade Aquino to work with Marcos if the assembly declares him the winner.

“It would also drive a lot of Aquino’s people into the arms of the anti-American left,” the diplomat said.

The diplomat echoed what several moderate opposition leaders said after the report on Reagan’s statement was aired widely on Philippine government radio and television.

Ramon Mitra, a staunch Aquino supporter and member of the National Assembly, told an American journalist: “If Reagan wants to save American interests in the Philippines by endorsing Marcos, he may have to send in the American army as well.

“There are those of us who have worked with your people in the American Embassy to restrain our more radical colleagues. Now these radical friends of ours will be laughing at us. You might be seeing more and more demonstrations against the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship, and seeing more and more new faces who were once with the moderates.”

Opposition Divided

Still, it was clear Tuesday that the Philippines’ already factious political opposition is deeply divided on how to counteract the sophisticated constitutional machinery Marcos is using to ensure his victory--a victory that many said may leave the moderate opposition ineffectual and dash the hopes of many here and in Washington for a revitalized two-party system.

Mitra and several other left-leaning assemblymen advocated an opposition walkout from the assembly’s nine-member Board of Tellers, a special committee that is canvassing the election returns. But more moderate members argued that it is necessary to stay on and challenge every return thought to be fraudulent.