Marcos Quits; Crowds Rejoice : Ex-Ruler Flown to Guam; U.S. Recognizes Aquino : Crisis in Philippines Ends; American Asylum Offered

Twenty years of often-tyrannical rule ended Tuesday night in an explosion of street celebrations as Ferdinand E. Marcos abandoned the presidency of the Philippines and fled the country in a U.S. Air Force jet.

Marcos’ departure climaxed a crisis that began with a flawed and fraudulent presidential election and ended with both his army and his people rising up against him in combined revolt.

Three hours after U.S. helicopters had carried Marcos, his family and close associates from Malacanang Palace, Secretary of State George P. Shultz announced U.S. recognition of the new government headed by Corazon Aquino.

Although Shultz said the United States had offered asylum to Marcos, his family and a handful of close aides, it was not yet clear Tuesday where the deposed president would take up residence. After spending the night at the sprawling Clark Air Base, 50 miles northwest of the capital, his party was flown to the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam. There were reports that it would proceed to Honolulu later.

Aquino, a 53-year-old political novice and the widow of slain opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., was proclaimed president in a suburban Manila clubhouse earlier Tuesday, even though Marcos had defeated her in the Feb. 7 presidential election, according to the official tally by a National Assembly dominated by Marcos supporters.

“The long agony is over,” Aquino declared early today. “We are finally free, and we can be truly proud of the unprecedented way in which we achieved our freedom.”

It was a sentiment that Shultz, in his statement congratulating her, had expressed Tuesday: “It is the Filipino people, of course, who are the true heroes today. . . . They have resolved this issue nonviolently in a way that does them honor.”

Not Completely Bloodless

The revolution was not completely bloodless. Scores had died in the election campaign. About a dozen more people were killed and more than 25 seriously injured in Manila street battles Monday and Tuesday between reformist rebel soldiers and diehard Marcos loyalists.

Those battles preceded Marcos’ decision to leave the nation just hours after he had vowed repeatedly that he would never abandon it or his office except in death.

But, as word of Aquino’s ascension to power spread, the hostility quickly faded among the masses in the streets, and the city erupted early today in joyful celebration. The last troops loyal to Marcos laid down their arms and joined in the horn-honking and deafening city-wide chant of “Cory! Cory! Cory!”

The word of Marcos’ capitulation had filtered out slowly Tuesday. Residents near his palace had reported seeing four blacked-out U.S. helicopters land in the palace grounds at around 9 p.m. The helicopters apparently took off with Marcos, his wife, Imelda, their daughters, Irene and Imee, their son, Ferdinand Jr., and three grandchildren.

There were also reports that close associates of the president, such as the military chief of staff, Gen. Fabian C. Ver, and other members of the entourage left by boat along the nearby Pasig River, then drove in convoy to the U.S. Embassy grounds.

The helicopters landed at Clark about 30 minutes later. An air base spokesman said the Marcos party spent the night in the quarters reserved for distinguished visitors.

Shortly before dawn, Marcos was carried on a stretcher onto a U.S. Air Force C-9 Nightingale medical evacuation plane with Red Cross markings. After the rest of his party boarded that plane and a C-141 cargo plane, the two planes took off at 5:03 a.m. today.

They landed 3 1/2 hours later at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam in the midst of a tropical rainstorm. The Marcos party went to the Hafa Adai House, a guest house on the base, which was declared off limits to the news media.

Edward D. Reyes, acting governor of Guam, spoke to Marcos shortly after his arrival and told reporters afterward, “Marcos was looking rather frail but is able to walk.”

Reyes said about 85 people were on the two aircraft, and he said he was told that the Marcos party will leave Guam this evening for Honolulu.

Nearly one-fourth of Guam’s 120,000 residents are Filipino-Americans, many of whom fled the Marcos regime. A small group of them gathered outside the air base after the planes arrived, and one carried a sign reading, “Welcome to Guam, Marcos. We’re Glad You’re Out of the Philippines.”

Soon after Marcos and his family had left the palace, Marcos’ one-time defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, who had initiated a military mutiny Saturday that snowballed into the rebellion that finally toppled Marcos, issued a warm note of thanks to the fallen leader.

“This thing saddens me very much,” said Enrile, who had been in Marcos’ Cabinet throughout his presidency and was himself once hated by the opposition for his role as administrator in the martial-law years from 1972 to 1981. “I have served the president for 21 years, but one thing that strikes me very much is the kindness of the president.”

Enrile explained that Marcos had spared the mutineers “from those who wanted to attack us for the last four days.”

‘Kindness and Compassion’

“As officers of the Philippines, we want to salute him for that ultimate kindness and compassion,” he said.

It was Enrile’s defection Saturday and the simultaneous resignation of the armed forces’ deputy chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, that began the final chapter of the Marcos regime.

Before that, Corazon Aquino and her supporters had lost their fight to unseat Marcos by the ballot. Instead they had turned to organizing what they called “people power,” a campaign of nonviolent demonstrations and commercial boycotts, as their only hope of regaining an election victory that they believed had been stolen from them.

Enrile said he was resigning to protest the blatant theft of the Feb. 7 presidential election, in which Marcos supporters were accused of using violence, intimidation, ballot fraud and theft and tampering with registration rolls to reduce the vote for Aquino.

Years of Corruption

Ramos, who nominally had been named chief of staff to replace Ver, wrote to Marcos on Feb. 19 complaining that Ver was still exercising authority in the military, transferring and promoting Marcos loyalists. When he resigned Saturday, Ramos said he was protesting years of corruption and politicization of the military.

With a few hundred soldiers, the two men took over two large military bases in the capital, Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo, the latter being where the Defense Ministry is located.

They soon abandoned Camp Aguinaldo and waited in Camp Crame for the counterattack that everyone felt was inevitable. Instead, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos surrounded the camps to protect the rebel soldiers, suffering tear gas and truncheon blows when Marcos forces retook Camp Aguinaldo.

In the next 48 hours, events moved swiftly. More military units defected to the rebels. In a crucial move Monday, the rebels captured the government’s television and radio station, a powerful propaganda tool and a vital prize in the battle to convince wavering officials and military commanders that the rebels had the upper hand.

But ultimately, it was neither the military mutiny nor the popular uprising that finally brought down a paternal figure whom many Filipinos had considered politically invincible. Rather, it took two telephone conversations with U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt (R-Nev.), a confidant of President Reagan, to persuade Marcos that it was time to go.

Reagan, after first making statements that many interpreted as support for Marcos after the widespread fraud and violence of the Feb. 7 election, openly called Monday for Marcos to resign.

Laxalt had been sent to the Philippines last October to express Reagan’s concerns about the country’s poor economy, the politicization of the military and the growing Communist insurgency. It was after those talks that Marcos decided to call the special presidential election in hopes of gaining a clear mandate to rule.

Now Marcos called Laxalt for advice on how to handle the most serious crisis of his 50 years in politics. In a return phone call an hour later, the senator apparently convinced the president that the only solution was to resign. Marcos replied, “I’m so very, very disappointed.”

Marcos hung up and called Enrile at Camp Crame.

Aquino’s vice presidential running mate, former Sen. Salvador Laurel, speaking on NBC-TV’s “Today” show, said Enrile and Ramos spoke to Marcos for almost two hours about his resignation.

In comments before Marcos’ departure from the Philippines, Enrile told reporters that his telephone conversation with the president was cordial, and he said they discussed safe passage for Marcos if he should decide to leave.

“We are trying to find a solution wherein people can maintain their dignity and their honor,” he added. “It is not our intention to hang anybody.”

A member of Parliament and key Aquino supporter, Aquilino Pimentel, who was at Aquino’s campaign offices today, said the agreement for Marcos to leave the country was arranged through Marcos’ prime minister, Cesar E.A. Virata. At no time did Marcos speak to Aquino directly, he said.

Soon after Enrile’s phone conversation with Marcos, the president and his party were airlifted from the besieged palace, where, hours earlier, Marcos had been sworn in for a new six-year term, declaring from a second-floor balcony, “Today is the best day of my life.”

It had been a strange ceremony. Marcos’ loyalists filled the reception hall, but only seven of his 24 Cabinet officers were present. Notable absentees were Prime Minister Virata and Vice President-elect Arturo Tolentino.

Even then, Marcos was defiant. “Events have brought democracy to a new kind of testing,” he said. “I say to you, as I say to everybody else, that we shall overcome.”

Live television coverage of the event on Channel 9 was inexplicably cut off just before the formal ceremony began. After that, all channels fell into rebel hands or went off the air, leaving Marcos no way to reach a mass audience.

Aquino was sworn in by her followers shortly before Marcos’ ceremony. During that festive and crowded event, she appointed the new Vice President Laurel her prime minister, Enrile her defense minister and Ramos her military chief of staff. She also promoted Ramos to full general.

Aquino, who said she and Laurel were taking power “in the name and by the will of the Filipino people,” named no other Cabinet officers. Instead, she appointed eight task force committees to study the various sectors of government.

“Everyone is playing it by ear,” said Aquino spokesman Rene Saguisag at the oath-taking ceremony. “What happened Saturday (the Enrile-Ramos defections) was a total surprise. This fell into our lap.”

Laurel arrived at Aquino’s campaign offices in the Manila financial district of Makati at mid-morning today and said: “The war is over. Now we have to pick up the pieces.”

Aquino herself spent her first morning in office receiving foreign ambassadors. On the list were the envoys of Japan, Canada and New Zealand. There was no indication that U.S. Ambassador Stephen W. Bosworth was among the visitors.

On reports of Marcos’ departure, Ramos went on television Tuesday night to warn against looting. He particularly cited Malacanang Palace, which he called a warehouse of national treasures. He said any violators of public order would be prosecuted.

Ramos also called on military units loyal to Marcos to obey only orders from Aquino, whom he called the head of the only legitimate government in the Philippines.

The first wave of celebrants surged through the 10-foot-high iron gate of Marcos’ presidential palace at 11:20 p.m. and entered the sprawling compound, for 20 years the center of power that most of them had never even seen.

Rich, middle-class and poor alike, they trampled over thousands of small Philippine flags handed out during the hollow inauguration ceremony that Marcos staged. They embraced each other and leaped atop two abandoned armored personnel carriers that had protected Marcos in his regime’s final hours. They tore down giant barricades that Marcos’ guards had erected in the complex in his final days, and they twisted the barbed wire into victory crowns of thorns.

It was, said many in the sea of hundreds of thousands swarming into the liberated palace grounds, simply history in the making, the end of one of the most harshly criticized regimes in the world.

Just before midnight, Cardinal Jaime Sin, primate of this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country and a man whose criticisms of the Marcos regime had played no small part in rallying the opposition, read this message on rebel-controlled television:

“In the midst of all your jubilation, I wish to remind you we have to be humble in our victory. It was God who answered the prayers of our people. . . . I’d like to request our people to show a low profile and work hard to unite our country.”