2 Leaders Renounce Marcos, Seize Bases : Vow to Back Aquino, Ask Army Support

In an act of open mutiny, the Philippines’ defense minister and the deputy armed forces chief seized control of the nation’s military headquarters Saturday night, demanded that President Ferdinand E. Marcos resign because his Feb. 7 election victory was fraudulent and pledged their support to opposition leader Corazon Aquino.

Backed by hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, deputy chief of staff, sealed off the Defense Ministry building, inside Camp Aguinaldo, one of the capital’s three large military bases, and called on the remainder of the president’s Cabinet and the nation’s 200,000-man armed forces to support them. The rebels also seized nearby Camp Crame.

‘Support This Movement’

“I cannot in good conscience recognize Marcos as commander in chief,” Enrile told reporters inside the heavily fortified Defense Ministry, and urged “all decent elements in the Cabinet . . . to wake up and support this movement.” Marcos should resign, the defense minister said, “while there’s still time.”

During an hourlong press conference at noon today, Marcos said he had deployed two battalions of troops around the bases, but he pledged several times to seek a nonviolent solution to the crisis.

“We can settle this matter without any bloodshed,” Marcos said. “ . . . I want to talk to them.”

While not ruling out “accidental firing,” he said, “I am not giving up my position of non-volatile settlement of this matter very easily.” He called the crisis “an awkward situation.”

Increasing His Options

The rebel officers at Camp Aguinaldo saw Marcos’ statements as an attempt to avoid forcing his former aides into a corner, thus increasing his options and buying time. They took this as evidence that he lacked the power to quash the rebellion.

Marcos also said that if Aquino were to proclaim a provisional government, he would consider that “another act of rebellion.”

Saturday night, a few hours after the seizure of military headquarters, the 68-year-old Marcos appeared on national television to charge that Enrile, his longtime friend, and Ramos, his first cousin, had been plotting to attack the presidential palace, assassinate him and his wife and topple the government in a coup d’etat.

At today’s press conference, however, he backed off the charge that Enrile and Ramos were directly involved in the coup and assassination plot, saying, “These actions were taken separately.”

Marcos claimed in the Saturday night broadcast that he aborted the attempted coup when troops loyal to him captured the attack force of three military battalions and “neutralized without bloodshed three-fourths of the force.”

As troops apparently loyal to Marcos manned 10-foot-high walls of barbed wire at every entrance to Malacanang Palace, Marcos appealed for calm, declared that his government was completely in control of the situation and claimed “the armed forces are still unified in support of the president.”

Calling the rebellion “the height of treason and rebellion,” Marcos demanded that the two officials “stop this stupidity and surrender so that we may negotiate . . . what will be done with them and their men.”

Marcos presented a man, identified as an Army Capt. Edgardo Morales, a personal guard of First Lady Imelda Marcos, who read a confession that he had participated in a plot against the Marcoses. Early today, Marcos presented a second man who also implicated himself in the plot.

Military Deeply Split

Marcos said he could put down the mutiny with force but that “would mean the elimination of all the men who are in that corner of Camp Aguinaldo.” Marcos said he believed there were 1,000 soldiers inside the military camp about three miles from the palace, although Enrile said he did not know how many supporters he had and acknowledged that the armed forces were deeply split.

After the announcement of the mutiny, several other Philippine leaders resigned, including Supreme Court Associate Justice Nestor Alampay and Navy Capt. Jose Roilo Golez, the postmaster general.

Besides Aguinaldo, the rebel officials controlled an adjacent base, Camp Crame, headquarters of the national police, and the mutiny became a tense stalemate today between rebel reformist factions and Marcos loyalists in the Philippines military.

Ramos said on the Roman Catholic Church-operated Radio Veritas this morning that he has been receiving expressions of support from military units around the country and that he has the backing of at least five of the 12 regional commanders.

Troops Reported Moving

But Col. Tiaso Godor, a battle group commander at Camp Aguinaldo, said that two battalions of troops loyal to Marcos were converging on Aguinaldo and Crame and were expected to be outside the installations by mid-afternoon.

Outside telephone connections to Crame were cut off this morning, and Marcos’ forces were expected to also cut the lines to Aguinaldo, Godor said. He added that there are about 1,000 rebel troops within the two camps.

“We are not in a tactically sound position,” he admitted. “We may lose the game but win our political objective.”

Marcos said that the military remains under the command of controversial Chief of Staff Gen. Fabian C. Ver, although the president had announced a week ago that Ver was retiring immediately. It was not clear today whether Ver or Marcos himself was in charge of the nation’s powerful military.

Major Political Crisis

The rebellion plunged the nation into one of the worst political crises in its history and raised the prospect of a military showdown between Marcos and two of his closest aides, but Manila was calm this morning. A marathon was run along the shore of Manila Bay, millions attended Mass and thousands of schoolchildren marched in a parade down Roxas Boulevard with floats honoring “Dental Week.”

At Camp Aguinaldo, Enrile stood beside soldiers carrying rifles at a Mass conducted by Father Nico Bautista. “This may be the darkest hour in the history of our country, but this is also our finest hour,” said Bautista, praising Enrile and Ramos for their action.

The Catholic archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jaime Sin, offered to mediate to avoid bloodshed, but he also broadcast a statement calling on the Filipino people to protect Enrile and Ramos.

“I am in deep concern about the situation of Minister Enrile and Gen. Ramos,” Sin said. “I am calling our people to support our two good friends.”

Crowds Gather

By midnight Saturday, eight hours after the mutiny began, thousands of Filipinos heeding Sin’s appeal over Radio Veritas surrounded military headquarters. They chanted, “Marcos concede!” and “Cory, Cory!”--Aquino’s nickname--and threw bags of food over the fence.

Aquino was holding a rally in the southern city of Cebu when the revolt occurred, and a spokesman for her later said she was “secure in a safe place.” An aide, Aquilino Pimentel, told United Press International that the rebellion was “totally unexpected” and that Aquino had briefly spoken with Enrile by telephone to inquire about the situation.

“I told her we are all right,” Enrile said later. “She asked what she can do and I said, ‘Pray for us.’ ”

At a press conference in Cebu today, Aquino said: “I am asking the military all over the country to support Enrile and Ramos. I think we are seeing Filipino people power at its best.”

Enrile, in an emotional press conference, blasted Marcos for using blatant fraud to win the presidential election. Enrile, a Harvard-educated lawyer who had supported Marcos without question for two decades, said the president had personally asked him to cheat in his home province of Cagayan. Ultimately, Enrile said, Marcos forces invented 230,000 nonexistent votes in that area for the government’s final tally.

‘People’s Mandate’

Enrile, 62, and Ramos, 57, both denied that they were leading a coup and said they believed Aquino was the legitimate victor in the hotly disputed election.

“I believe that the mandate of the people does not belong to the present regime,” Enrile declared. “I am morally convinced that it was Mrs. Aquino who was duly elected by the people. We have to support her and work for her. . . . That is why we are withdrawing our allegiance from Marcos.”

The rampant election fraud “bothered my conscience,” Enrile declared, as his troops, all of them members of a recently formed reform movement within the military, embraced, exchanged handshakes and tearfully proclaimed victory. The troops were armed with Uzi submachine guns, grenades, rockets, mounted machine guns and a huge stockpile of ammunition.

Junior officers vowed never to surrender, but there were signs that Enrile was willing to negotiate with Marcos. He suggested early today that Gen. Rafael (Rocky) Ileto, currently the Philippine ambassador to Thailand, might serve as an intermediary. Ileto is now in Manila.

Enrile said he made his sudden decision Saturday afternoon to mobilize his forces and hole up in the Defense Ministry after receiving reports that Marcos had ordered that he and all the senior military officers involved in his reform movement were to be arrested.

Willingness to Die

Describing his troops at the camp as “defensive only,” Enrile said he took the action for “survival,” but quickly added he is willing to die if Marcos attacks.

“He can have me shot, but if he will shed the blood of these young officers who are here with us, I do not think he will be able to live through it,” Enrile said.

Soon after Enrile arrived at the ministry compound, two helicopters landed, packed with small arms, crates of ammunition, grenades, rockets and food rations, indicating that he and his men expect a prolonged stay.

The first telephone call Enrile said he made after his troops took up positions was to U.S. Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth, who told him he would relay the information to Washington. Enrile added that he had met with President Reagan’s special envoy, Philip C. Habib, who left Manila just hours before the mutiny, but Enrile stressed that his actions were unknown to Habib when he left.

‘We Are Many’

Enrile said that he did not know what percentage of the armed forces support him and Ramos and how many remain loyal to Marcos and Ver. But the defense minister said, “We are many,” and the top colonels holed up with him at the ministry building said their supporters were spread throughout the nation.

“We are not acting at the behest or under the influence of anyone,” said Enrile, who appeared to have dressed hurriedly in blue jeans, sneakers, a fatigue jacket and a bulletproof vest. “We are not involved with any foreign power.”

Asked how he thought Marcos would react to their mutiny, Ramos, a reform-minded career soldier who came up through the ranks in his 39-year career, said he believes that Marcos would put more military battalions around his palace “to make sure he has all the cards before he makes his move.”

“The best thing would be for him to come out and die along with us in a neutral venue,” Enrile said.

Scene at Palace

The handful of reporters invited to the presidential palace Saturday night to witness Marcos’ television statement saw no unusual troop deployments within the palace grounds. Instead, workers were uprooting the palace vegetable garden and erecting a stage for Marcos’ inauguration ceremony, which he said was still scheduled for “high noon” on Tuesday.

Ramos, who met the press with another relative of the president who heads the national customs bureau at his side, said that he is resigning because Marcos “no longer is able and capable as commander in chief. He has put his personal interests, his family interests, above the interests of the people.”

Ramos served for 15 months as acting chief of staff while Ver was being tried for the August, 1983, assassination of Aquino’s husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., as he returned to the Philippines from the United States. Ver and 24 others on trial were acquitted.

A West Point graduate, Ramos has been regarded by U.S. officials as a force for reform in the increasingly corrupt military.

At the press conference, Ramos called on all members of the armed forces to remain calm, to avoid bloodletting and to “look into their consciences” to see whether they can still support an “illegitimate government.”

‘Do What’s Right’

“I am only appealing to the troops now to do what is right under the Constitution,” said Ramos, adding that Marcos has refused many of his attempts to effect reforms in a military establishment frequently charged with murder, torture and other human rights abuses.

Throughout his time as acting chief of staff, Ramos was constrained by a presidential directive that all of his orders had to be cleared first by Marcos.

“There has become an elite armed forces within the armed forces of the Philippines that no longer represents the officer and the soldier corps,” Ramos said. He listed three close political associates of Marcos--including Benjamin Romauldez, the ambassador to the United States and brother of the First Lady--who, he said, were authorized large quantities of weapons and ammunition before the election to coerce voters to cast ballots for Marcos.

Ramos also warned the nation of a serious threat from Marcos’ tightly knit National Intelligence Security Agency, a military wing under the direct control of the president, Gen. Ver and Ver’s son, Irwin.

The top-secret intelligence agency, which keeps computerized files on all dissidents and was implicated in the Aquino assassination, has been functioning without any checks or balances, Ramos said.

Vanishing Witnesses

Ramos also listed several cases in which his investigators documented corruption and murder cases against top military commanders close to Marcos, only to have them thrown out after key witnesses disappeared or the president personally intervened.

Ramos added that, despite his call to all military personnel to disobey “illegal orders” from Marcos’ commanders, he issued orders of his own for all soldiers and military police to remain vigilant for attacks by the armed rebels of the Communist New People’s Army. He said the rebels were likely “to try to take advantage of this crisis situation.”

Like Enrile, Ramos said that he is willing to die during the current struggle, but he did not remain inside the Defense Ministry. Casually dressed in a safari suit and without a bulletproof vest, Ramos strolled out after the press conference, got into a silver Toyota and sped off, followed by two cars packed with heavily armed soldiers. “I’m going jogging,” he said.

Top aides said that Ramos was sequestering himself in his office at the headquarters of the national police, which he commands, in Camp Crame across the street from Camp Aguinaldo. Some reports said that he was protected by a force of about 400 soldiers.

But early today, Ramos came out of Camp Crame in civilian clothing and greeted the crowd, which chanted his name and surged forward to shake his hand. He climbed atop a pickup truck and said he was trying to protect the Constitution. “We thank the people for giving us your support,” he said.

‘Act of Contrition’

Enrile, an elected member of the national legislature and long one of Marcos’ most articulate supporters, was the more emotional of the two rebel leaders Saturday night.

“What I am doing is an act of contrition,” the minister said, “to atone for my participation in the declaration of martial law (in 1972). If I had known martial law would be prostituted, . . . I never would have supported it.”

Marcos’ declaration of martial law, which ended in 1981, was among his most controversial acts. While welcomed by many in the beginning, it led to rampant corruption and abuse by the military and is now said by most analysts to have marked the beginning of the Philippines’ economic and political crisis.

Enrile added that he doubts that Marcos can declare martial law now, despite the crisis in the military, because “the people won’t support it. It will cause a civil war.”

And one source in the presidential palace, who asked not to be named, said Saturday night that Marcos would be afraid to invoke martial law “because he’s afraid to find out just who supports him and who doesn’t.”

‘Manufactured Votes’

Enrile said Saturday that martial law never really ended. “We do not have any democracy here. It is a democracy of manufactured votes, manufactured tallies,” he said, adding that he took his drastic action “so never again will tyranny be let into our country.”

Several times, Enrile spoke fatalistically about dying in an assault on his stronghold--an attack that he believed was likely today.

“The hour of reckoning is here and now for me, and I would rather die fighting for my people,” he said. “For me, it is now more honorable to die fighting this regime than die fighting for it.”

Enrile, who had been mentioned as a possible ruling party candidate for president or vice president and is known to have had strong political ambitions, flatly denied that his motives in the mutiny are political.

“I am not doing this because I want glory or wealth or power,” Enrile said. “This is not just our fight. This is the fight of all of the Filipino people.”