Aquino Will Seek Cease-Fire With Communists and General Amnesty

President Corazon Aquino said today she will seek a cease-fire with communist guerrillas but not the extradition of Ferdinand E. Marcos, driven into exile by her “people power” revolt.

Salvador H. Laurel, the new vice president and prime minister-designate, announced plans for a general political amnesty and said the insurgents are not truly communists, but people Marcos forced into fighting.

Government television announced that a military committee was preparing a list of anti-Marcos political prisoners to be freed Thursday, which it said might include about 50% of those held.

‘Magnanimous in Victory’

Aquino, who blames Marcos for the assassination of her husband, Benigno, in 1983, told a news conference: “I have said I can be magnanimous in victory.” She said she would not ask the United States to extradite the man she has called an “old dictator” who would use any means to stay in power.

She also announced her Cabinet appointments at the news conference, and said Laurel will serve as both prime minister and foreign minister.

Aquino met with 11 members of the Marcos government today, including Prime Minister Cesar Virata, and asked them to stay on until her appointees receive National Assembly approval. She also included some Marcos men in her new government.

“Let’s forget the past,” she said.

She said a new Commission on Good Government would be charged with investigating alleged illegal transfers of wealth outside the country by Marcos and his cronies.

Aquino won loud applause from spectators when she said she did not plan to live in the Malacanang presidential palace hastily abandoned by Marcos on Tuesday because “it is not fitting for the leader of an impoverished nation to live in extravagance.” She said the palace would remain the seat of government.

Laurel, interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” said of the guerrillas: “Given a credible government, a democratic moral order and a general amnesty, 90% of the people who are now fighting in the hills will lay down their arms and come home.

“They are not communists. They are only people who were driven to fighting in the hills because of the unwanted regime of Mr. Marcos.”

However, Laurel said Aquino did not plan to give the communists a role in her government, as Marcos had charged during their bitter election campaign.

Commanders May Surrender

Aquino told the news conference she would seek a cease-fire with the guerrillas, known as the New People’s Army, and had been told two of their commanders might surrender to her.

Laurel said Filipinos consider the United States their “closest friend,” and said, “We would like a positive commitment from President Reagan that he will help the Philippines during this difficult time.”

Among her Cabinet appointments, Aquino retained Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and promoted Fidel V. Ramos to full general and made him military chief of staff. The two men bolted from Marcos’ government Saturday and led the military rebellion that helped topple Marcos.