Aquino Promises to Rebuild Nation : Names Cabinet, Urges Filipinos to Show Patience

On her first day as undisputed president of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino named a Cabinet of mostly loyal political associates, while urging her countrymen to be patient with her government as it “rebuilds the ruins” left by deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

“It was just last night that Mr. Marcos left,” Aquino, 53, said in her first presidential press conference Wednesday afternoon. “You had Marcos for 20 years. For us it hasn’t even been 24 hours.”

Meanwhile, Marcos, his family and nearly 80 associates arrived at Hickam Air Force Base near Honolulu, after spending the night on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam.

Aquino, the seventh president in Philippine history and the first woman to hold the position, was asked if she would seek to extradite Marcos from his expected exile in the United States.

“I can be magnanimous in victory, and I would like to show by example (that) the sooner we can forget our hurts, the sooner we can start rebuilding our country,” she replied.

She said she has appointed a Presidential Commission on Good Government to investigate whether Marcos, his family and close friends held money and property abroad. The commission also will study how to determine responsibility for the August, 1983, assassination of her husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

Another special commission will study constitutional reform, she said.

She said that charges of wrongdoing by military officers will be investigated and members of the military will be removed in areas where “people will be in danger by the continued presence of certain officers and men.”

Aquino also said she will seek a cease-fire with Communist guerrillas of the New People’s Army.

Appearing on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” her vice president, Salvador Laurel, 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.”

Laurel, interviewed on CBS News, announced plans for “a general amnesty to all political offenders.” Aquino today ordered the immediate release of 33 political prisoners, and the government announced that 400 other such cases are being studied.

Appearing at the same press conference as Aquino, her defense minister, former Marcos loyalist-turned-rebel Juan Ponce Enrile, recounted how Marcos made one last-ditch effort Tuesday to scuttle the Aquino government.

“Yesterday morning, my former boss called me up and asked me to form a provisional government,” said Enrile, who was also Marcos’ defense minister and the chief administrator during the nine years that Marcos ruled by martial law.

When Enrile and his fellow leader of the military rebellion, then-Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, would not turn against Aquino, Marcos asked for help in getting an American general based in the Philippines to provide protection for his family in its flight from Manila, Enrile recalled.

Enrile said he relayed the request to the U.S. ambassador, Stephen W. Bosworth. The U.S. Embassy had no comment on the claim except to confirm that the brigadier general Enrile said Marcos named, Theodore (Ted) Allen, is assigned to the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group based in the Philippines.

Flights Resume

After three weeks of turmoil that began with the Feb. 7 presidential elections here, some kind of routine began to return to the Philippine capital Wednesday. Banks reopened after a two-day bank holiday ordered by the government. After receiving only two incoming flights Tuesday, Manila International Airport returned to a full schedule.

Traffic police, who were nowhere to be found during recent days, resumed their posts directing the stream of gaily decorated “jeepneys,” cars and buses.

The most congestion was found along Mendiola Road, which fronts the presidential Malacanang Palace. Thousands of Manilans continued to tour grounds and buildings where they had not had access in the 20 years that Marcos had been president.

“For 20 years, we could not go inside; it was surrounded by barbed wire. This is my very first time,” said Ernesto Ladancon, 30, who said he had been there Tuesday night as well.

By midday, irregular army units, composed of soldiers who had filtered into the palace during the morning, had secured the residential quarters of the complex. However, the sprawling office area remained a chaotic scene of celebrating citizens, vendors selling fried bananas, popcorn, soda and cigarettes and small political bands waving flags.

Some of the more experienced intruders offered foreigners a guided tour.

“This is the library,” volunteered Rene Gonzalez, pointing through the gates toward a room that had papers strewn on the floor. He escorted a visitor around the corner of the building to a fence where small groups of people were standing in the dark, looking out at the water. “Here is the palace view of the bay.”

The once-lush lawns of the palace were stripped of grass by the crowd. Many of the visitors pulled small flowers and plants from the grounds.

Booby-Trap Search

Military bomb disposal experts searched the grounds for possible booby-traps planted by fleeing Marcos guards. Sgt. Enrique Lescano of the Philippine Constabulary told the Associated Press that he found a plastic charge hidden inside a book in the palace and that the grounds were littered with hand grenades and other ammunition apparently left behind in Tuesday night’s hasty evacuation.

During her campaign, Aquino said she would never live in the palace, lavishly furnished by Marcos and his wife, Imelda. On Wednesday, the new president said she will maintain an office in the palace complex but live elsewhere.

“It is not fitting for the leader of an impoverished nation to live in extravagance,” she said.

Aquino met for nearly one hour in the afternoon at her campaign headquarters office with Ambassador Bosworth. He was enthusiastically applauded by several hundred Aquino supporters as he left the building.

“We had a nice conversation,” Bosworth said, smiling and shaking hands with the crowd.

During the meeting, Aquino agreed to meet with President Reagan’s special envoy, Philip C. Habib, whom Bosworth said was due in Manila early today.

Earlier, Aquino met privately with 14 of Marcos’ former Cabinet ministers, including his prime minister, Cesar E.A. Virata. Virata reportedly played a part in negotiating the terms of Marcos’ departure from the Philippines on Tuesday.

She described the sessions as “cordial” and “most pleasant.”

“It is now time to heal the wounds and forget the past,” she said. “Certainly, we will need everyone’s help to rebuild the country.”

At her press conference, Aquino, again wearing a dress in her trademark yellow, calmly fielded questions selected from those submitted by several hundred journalists from many countries.

Pleased With U.S. Positions

She said that except for an early statement by Reagan that both the Marcos and Aquino camps may have been guilty of abuses in the election, she was “very happy” with the positions taken by the United States during the crisis.

“I was slightly disappointed in the first Reagan statement, but it was quickly forgiven by yours truly,” she said.

Regarding the two key U.S. military installations in the Philippines, Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base, Aquino said:

“I will respect the military base agreement we have until it expires in 1991. After that I am keeping my options open.”

Perhaps the most sensitive question asked of the new president involved Enrile and Ramos, the two leading defectors from the Marcos camp. Their repudiation of Marcos and seizure of two military camps in the capital led to the fall of the Marcos government.

Question of Trust

The questioner noted that some observers now consider them the most powerful men in the Philippines and asked if she trusted them.

Aquino said that “despite the intrigue” of their defection from the Marcos camp, where both had once been trusted men, “I believe them when Gen. Ramos and Minister Enrile said they will support my government.”

Aquino has already rewarded the two: Enrile was returned to his post as defense minister and shared the platform Wednesday at the press conference with Aquino. Ramos was promoted from lieutenant general to full general and named chief of staff of the Philippine armed services.

Heading the other Cabinet appointments was Vice President Laurel. She had named him prime minister on Tuesday, when she was sworn in as president. Wednesday, she gave him the additional portfolio of foreign minister. Philippine vice presidents have no constitutional duties, and the country had not had one since 1972.

Many of her other appointments were political supporters. It will not be a Cabinet of technocrats. Several key opposition members of Parliament were named as ministers: Neptali Gonzales, justice; Aquilino Pimentel, local government; Ramon Mitra, agriculture; Alberto Romulo, budget, and Luis Villafuerte to head the Government Reorganization Commission.

Pimentel and Mitra both had been mentioned as possible vice presidential running mates for Aquino before Laurel agreed to join the ticket.

Led Business Switch

Jaime Ongpin, the president of a mining company, Benguet Consolidated, who was named finance minister, has been a close adviser and led the business community into opposition after the August, 1983, assassination of Aquino’s husband, Marcos’ strongest political opponent. She has accused Marcos of responsibility for the killing, the event that propelled her into politics.

Jose Concepcion Jr., another industrialist, was named trade and industry minister. He headed the National Movement for Free Elections, a group of independent election monitors.

Ernesto Maceda, minister of natural resources, was a close political adviser during the campaign, and Jovito Salonga, head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, was a prospective presidential candidate and a stalwart of the liberal opposition. Jailed under martial law, he later spent many years in California.

Other appointments included Lourdes Quisumbing, education; Rogaciano Mercado, public works; Jose Antonio Gonzales, tourism; Teodoro Locsin Jr., information, and Joker Arroyo, a noted human rights lawyer, executive secretary.