Aquino May Refuse to Meet With Habib : Won’t Discuss Compromise Leaving Marcos in Power, Aide Says

U.S. special envoy Philip C. Habib arrived in the Philippines on Saturday, but opposition leader Corazon Aquino said she will refuse to see him if he tries to negotiate a compromise that leaves Ferdinand E. Marcos in office as president.

Habib, sent by President Reagan to assess U.S. policy options in the wake of the fraud-stained election, refused to speak with reporters after alighting from his Air Force jet.

He was met on the runway by Acting Foreign Minister Pacifico Castro, reflecting the importance attached to his trip here.

An American diplomat said that Habib expects to meet with both Marcos and Aquino, as well as with Cardinal Jaime Sin, the primate of the powerful Roman Catholic Church.

Since the election, marked by widespread fraud and violence by Marcos supporters, the regime and the opposition have both looked to Washington for a signal of how the United States--the dominant influence here since the U.S. Navy seized Manila in 1898--will react.

Last week, when President Reagan said he had seen no “hard evidence” of fraud in the Feb. 7 vote, both sides here took it as a virtual U.S. endorsement of Marcos’ reelection.

U.S. Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth has tried to dispel that impression, arguing that the Reagan Administration still considers the validity of the election a matter for Filipinos to decide.

Reagan also said at his Tuesday news conference that fraud and violence may “have been occurring on both sides.”

Saturday, Reagan took a different tack in a statement issued in Santa Barbara, saying that the Philippine elections “were marred by widespread fraud and violence perpetrated largely by the ruling party. It was so extreme that the elections’ credibility has been called into question both within the Philippines and in the United States,” Reagan said.

But as Habib seeks advice on whether the United States should prop up Marcos or seek to ease him out, he will also have to convince skeptical leaders that Reagan has not already decided in Marcos’ favor.

“The damage has already been done,” Aquino spokesman Rene Saguisag said. “First they kick us, and then they want to come see us.”

Saguisag said Aquino and her major backers had agreed that she should refuse to meet with Habib if the envoy is seeking to negotiate a compromise with Marcos.

Habib was tentatively scheduled to see Marcos early this week, a senior Philippine official said.

The Marcos-dominated National Assembly officially proclaimed him the winner of a new six-year term on Saturday, a move that many opposition members charged was timed to narrow the options available to Habib.

“If there is a fait accompli , there is no more room for compromise,” said Luis Villapuerte, an opposition assembly member. “If (Habib) is coming to appease the opposition, he has failed even before he arrived. There is going to be a serious erosion of support for the United States here.”

Aquino says she believes she won the Feb. 7 vote and that the only solution to the political impasse is for Marcos to “abdicate.”

“All we are asking from our foreign friends--or those who claim to be our friends--is not to support Marcos, not to make the situation more difficult than it already is,” spokesman Saguisag told reporters.

He said opposition leaders wonder whether Habib’s mission is one of “intervention.”

“We want to know what he is coming here for,” Saguisag said. “If it’s fact-finding, the facts are there. If they want to go beyond that, they may cross the line.”

When asked whether Aquino would meet with Habib if the envoy wanted to discuss compromises that might include a Marcos resignation, Saguisag said: “He can go to the other side for that.”

Another American delegation arrived Saturday evening to monitor developments for Congress. Sent by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), who led the official U.S. delegation of observers on election day, they included Allen Weinstein, president of the Center for Democracy at Boston University; Charles Andreae, a Lugar aide; Richard McCall, an aide to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.); and Caleb McCarry, another official of the Center for Democracy.