Aquino, Aides Struggling to Govern After Sudden Rise to Power

Over the past couple of years, Sandy G. Santiago had gone through three different jobs. Now, he had a modest proposal, one that might enable him to profit from his experience as a worker in the presidential campaign of Corazon Aquino.

Santiago, still working as a volunteer staffer welcoming visitors to the makeshift offices used by Aquino and her aides, dropped a few vague hints about struggles for power within the new government. Then, in a park nearby, he got down to business.

He and his staff, six volunteers, could be hired to provide information from inside the Aquino government.

“We have the right credentials,” he said. “We can get into places that maybe the press can’t go.”

The offer, which was not accepted, underscored some of the chaos that prevails at Aquino headquarters.

No Transition Lull

With no time off between the Feb. 7 presidential election and her sudden takeover of the presidency, no official transition period and no chance--or wish--to ask the advice of her predecessor, Aquino and her staff have had to move rapidly to take on the responsibility of governing a nation of 54 million people.

This week, the strain of it all began to show.

The Aquino government has been wrestling with lofty policy questions, the resolution of which could determine the course of her administration. Should the new government be considered revolutionary, or is it bound by the laws and constitution drafted under former President Ferdinand E. Marcos? Should Communist leaders be kept in jail? What approach should be taken to fighting insurgents in the hills?

Aquino and other officials are being forced to deal with such issues in an atmosphere of turmoil and chaos.

The mundane details of day-to-day administration have yet to be settled. Officials of the new government, from Aquino on down, have no permanent offices yet. Aquino’s executive secretary, Joker Arroyo, admitted the other day that he does not even have a typewriter.

Confusion on Funding

Ordinary financial arrangements are up in the air. On Tuesday, after holding their first press conference and first official meeting, members of Aquino’s Commission on Good Government, the organization responsible for seeking out the wealth of Marcos and his associates, confessed that they have yet to track down their own appropriations.

“The executive order (setting up the commission) says we have 50 million pesos (about $2.5 million) ‘subject to the availability of funds,’ ” commission member Raul Daza said. “We don’t know what funds are available. Maybe Mr. Marcos will make available the funds.”

The tumultuous final days of the Marcos era have not made things any easier. Some commercial banks were reported last week to be refusing to accept government checks issued under Marcos in January and February. Jose B. Fernandez, president of the Central Bank, told reporters that some of these checks, in amounts up to $50,000, were issued without the approval of the Central Bank.

Searching for Funds

On Friday, Teodoro Locsin Jr., Aquino’s new minister of information, told reporters he was having a group of auditors search through his agency’s budget for 1986 to find how much money was left.

“In the first quarter, they (Marcos officials) took out the budget for the entire year,” he said. “They did a good job, I’ll tell you. There is money left for payroll, but for operations, it’s gone.”

Commercial bankers fear they might be stuck with checks the new government will refuse to honor. But on Thursday, Treasury officials assured the banks that checks properly issued will be honored.

“Our problem here is continuity,” Arroyo said. “The old administration ended with a bang. So many department heads deserted their posts.”

Most of all, the Aquino forces are besieged with requests for jobs, disputes over patronage, pleas for help by Filipinos whose hopes have been raised by the change in government.

“We’ve had some people come in here who ask us to help them get medical treatment for their children,” an official at Aquino campaign headquarters said.

Outside the building where the new president works, a special “complaints and assistance desk” has been set up to try to take care of such people.

One of the main themes of the Aquino campaign was an attack on Marcos’ extravagant life style and a promise that if elected she would conduct herself in a more ascetic fashion.

Now, Aquino and her aides appear to be trying to figure out how far they should go in carrying out this promise. They have already decided to use offices in Malacanang Palace as working headquarters for their administration. Aquino’s staff hopes to begin moving out of the cramped and run-down campaign headquarters as early as next week.

During a brief visit to Malacanang, Aquino reaffirmed a promise that she will not live there. But some of her supporters are trying to persuade her to change her mind.

Aquino’s aides and Cabinet ministers, many of whom have been working as opposition politicians, civil rights lawyers and private businessmen, are also trying to decide how much security protection they need and how to reconcile the need for protection with their fear of being walled off from the public.

Safety a Question

Rene Saguisag, Aquino’s press spokesman, was asked if the new administration can guarantee the safety of two Communist insurgent leaders who were set free. Saguisag chose to answer the question partly in personal terms. “We cannot even assure our own safety,” he said.

Saguisag said he is still driving around Manila alone in his own car and he hinted that he had been asked to stop doing this.

In the United States, a new President would have an interval of about 10 weeks between Election Day and the inauguration to deal with all these problems. It is during this transition period that those who are about to assume power rest, sort out job applications, settle disputes over plum positions, and discuss the policies they plan to carry out.

The Philippine constitution allows a period of up to 10 days between the time a president is proclaimed and the time he is inaugurated. But Aquino did not get even this. During the official transition period, after the Marcos-controlled National Assembly declared him the election winner, the chain of events began that forced Marcos to flee.

Three-Part Strategy

In the face of these early difficulties, Aquino and her aides appear to be following a three-pronged strategy to guard against a loss of popular support.

First, they are trying to make good on some of their campaign promises as quickly as possible. Last Sunday, Aquino signed the order restoring the right of habeas corpus in national security cases to ensure that apprehended persons are taken before a court to decide the legality of their detention. On Wednesday, despite the reservations of military officials, she set free two leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines, thus honoring her pre-election pledge to release all political prisoners.

Second, the Aquino people have been begging for time. “Give us 100 days,” Jose Concepcion Jr., the new minister of trade and industry, pleaded in a recent public appearance.

“There has been disappointment that in a single week we have not solved all the problems of this country,” Saguisag said. “We don’t even have an office. . . . We are really pleading for a little understanding.”

Finally, the Aquino government is seeking to keep national attention focused on the misdeeds of the Marcos era. For example, the effort to recover from overseas the “ill-gotten wealth” of Marcos and his associates may in the end turn out to be largely unsuccessful, but it may have the short-term effect of reminding the public of the corruption that was rampant under Marcos.

“Compared to Mr. Marcos, we are in paradise now,” Saguisag said in a tired voice. “I think there is no question that the country today is not the country it was. . . . “

Washington hopes to encourage an out-of-court settlement of ownership of valuables taken to Honolulu by Marcos. Page 6.