American Says Manila Official Admitted Fraud

A Philippine government official admitted to U.S. election observers that 1 million voters were disfranchised in the Feb. 7 election in which President Ferdinand E. Marcos was declared the winner by just over 1.5 million votes, one of the observers said Friday.

Prof. Allen Weinstein, president of the Center for Democracy at Boston University, said that the official, whom he did not identify, offered the estimate in response to charges by the National Movement for Free Elections, a Philippine volunteer election-monitoring organization, that 3.3 million eligible voters were prevented from casting their ballots.

Nevertheless, the official’s comment contradicted the Manila government’s official claim that no more than a handful of potential voters were denied the chance to vote because of intimidation or because their names were eliminated from voter rolls.

Documentary Proof

Weinstein, who remained in Manila for about 10 days after the return home of the rest of the observer group, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), called a news conference to distribute documents that he said demonstrate the fraudulent nature of the election.

The documents, many of which were made public earlier in Manila, indicated a pattern of fraud and intimidation committed primarily by the government.

“I have no doubt that there were things done on UNIDO’s side (the party of opposition leader Corazon Aquino) that we would not approve of . . . but the government clearly has the horses in that category (of election fraud),” Weinstein said.

Weinstein, who returned to Washington on Wednesday, said he met with Marcos and formed the opinion that the Philippine president may not realize the extent of the opposition to him because his aides tell him what he wants to hear.

“He receives an awful lot of bad information,” Weinstein said. “One of his problems now may be to get an accurate reading of what is going on in the countryside.”

However, Weinstein said that Marcos clearly was aware of the seamy side of politics. He said Marcos accused the Aquino forces of paying 150 pesos a vote in one province.

“He (Marcos) said he couldn’t keep up with that,” Weinstein said. “We asked him what the going rate was and he said, ’25 pesos’ .” That is a little more than $1.

Picture Album

Weinstein said the Philippine government attempted to document its charges of fraud by the Aquino camp by giving the observers a photo album containing pictures of the activities of pro-Aquino poll watchers.

One picture that Weinstein distributed to reporters showed three nuns standing quietly at a polling place. The government’s caption said, “Nuns and other NAMFREL (National Movement for Free Elections) volunteers swarm around a hall where the canvassing of election returns is being conducted.”

Weinstein said the photograph “reveals the depth of the government’s charges of fraud.”

Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that White House envoy Philip C. Habib has virtually completed his “fact-finding” mission to the Philippines and will return soon, perhaps during the weekend, to report to President Reagan.

At the same time, Marcos dispatched three envoys of his own to Washington to try to convince the U.S. government that his mandate is valid. Redman said that Labor Minister Blas Ople, Benjamin Romaldez, the ambassador to the United States, and presidential aide Alejandro Melchor will arrive in the United States during the weekend and will meet with U.S. officials next week. Romaldez had returned to Manila for the election.

Contingency Plans

On Capitol Hill, Navy Secretary John F. Lehman told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that the Navy has contingency plans in case it is denied the use of its base at Subic Bay in the event of political upheaval in the Philippines, but that none of the alternatives is as good strategically.

“From a geopolitical point of view, we don’t believe there is any alternative to Subic. . . . While we could move certain facilities to other places like Guam and Tinian . . . , it’s very expensive,” Lehman said. “But to allow people to think that is in fact an alternative--it’s not an alternative. It’s something very different.”

Times staff writer Don Irwin contributed to this story.