Marcos Paper Says S.F. Firm Funneled Funds : Indicates $700,000 in Manila Military Money Went to U.S. Campaigns, ‘Security’ Projects

A 1982 “statement of expenses” found among the seized private papers of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos indicates that a San Francisco company funneled more than $700,000 in what appeared to be Philippine military money into U.S. state and national political campaigns and into intelligence and “security” projects.

Dr. Leonilo Malabed, a San Francisco physician who founded the company, Mabuhay Corp., denied that any contributions were channeled through the firm but acknowledged that he made personal contributions to some of the officeholders listed on the sheet.

“I contributed to almost anyone who requested it--$25 or whatever,” Malabed said in an interview. But he dismissed as “just another treasure hunt” allegations that the corporation donated large cash amounts to political candidates.

The document, a simple, typewritten sheet, did not carry a letterhead but had the words Mabuhay Corp. typed at the top. An attorney for the company, Daniel F. Reidy, was listed in the statement as having received fees for legal services and confirmed to Times reporters that he had represented Mabuhay.

Nothing in the document explicitly linked the contributions to the Philippine military. But acronyms on the paper--commonly used in the Philippines to designate such agencies as the armed forces and Marcos’ Presidential Security Command--were used and suggested to officials here that the military was involved.

Malabed, publisher of the Filipino-American, a pro-Marcos newspaper based in Sacramento, said that he formed Mabuhay in 1978 in an unsuccessful attempt to buy San Francisco radio station KJAZ-FM. He said the corporation has since been dissolved.

The campaigns of President Reagan and former President Jimmy Carter were listed on the document, labeled “strictly confidential,” as receiving $50,000 each in 1980. Under a separate heading, the Carter-Mondale Presidential Committee was listed for another $1,500.

Officeholders and the amounts listed after their names included Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), $10,000; California Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, $10,000; San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, $2,500; and San Francisco Supervisor Quentin Kopp, $500.

Spokesmen Deny Knowledge

Spokesmen for both presidential campaigns said they knew nothing about such contributions, as did all of the officeholders involved.

Some, however, said they had received contributions from Malabed. McCarthy said Malabed gave him $5,000 when he ran for his current post in 1982 and $700 when the former Speaker ran for reelection to the Assembly in 1980.

“The peculiar thing is that Malabed never asked him for anything or discussed Marcos,” said Steve Hopcraft, a spokesman for McCarthy. Hopcraft said the only fact that McCarthy recalled about the contributions was that Malabed was “very happy” that McCarthy supported Larry Asera in his unsuccessful 1980 Assembly race.

The name of Asera, a former Solano County supervisor who has described himself as the highest elected Filipino-American officeholder in the state, also appears on the Mabuhay Corp. contribution sheet, with $50,000 listed after his name. But he could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Cranston said it is “extremely ironic” that his name appears on the list because he has been a staunch foe of Marcos. “We do not know the significance of the list,” he said. “Perhaps it was somebody’s fake expense account.”

Federal Election Commission records showed that Malabed had contributed $500 to Cranston during the 1980 primary campaign.

“If Marcos or any of his minions did manage to launder and sneak money into my campaign, they sure picked the wrong guy,” Cranston said. “I have never had a good word to say about Marcos.”

The chief Philippine investigator of Marcos’ wealth, Jovito R. Salonga, also cast doubt on the validity of the list. Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, Salonga said that he does “not give much credence” to the document “because it does not bear any signature or initial.”

Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), the subcommittee’s ranking minority member, said he does not believe the information on the list “amounts to a hill of beans.” Leach suggested that most politicians would not be influenced by “such piddling sums. I hope that nobody makes so much of this.”

The document, however, is being reviewed by the Justice Department’s criminal division, a spokesman said. Possible violations involve the federal election law’s prohibition of contributions by foreign nations and contributions made in the name of another person, as well as the law’s reporting and record-keeping provisions.

But the Justice Department spokesman noted that such violations are misdemeanors, subject to a three-year statute of limitations, which appears to rule out prosecution because the most recent contributions cited in the document would have taken place in 1982. Lynn Montgomery, spokeswoman for the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said its records dating back to 1980 show no listing of Mabuhay Corp., Malabed or any of its other officers as major campaign contributors. She indicated that Malabed, based on contributions that he or the recipients have acknowledged, may have violated the law requiring those contributing more than $5,000 in any election to list themselves as major donors.

Under the heading “special missions” in the 1982 document, the Mabuhay Corp. listed the 1980 American Newspaper Publishers Assn. convention in Honolulu, and the amount $6,000. An ANPA spokesman said that Marcos was the luncheon speaker at the meeting on April 21, 1980, and that the Marcos party hosted a reception there.

Also listed was the Democratic Party’s 1980 convention in New York for $10,000.

The political contributions bore the notation that they had been cleared by “PSC-CG,” initials that a source familiar with the Philippines said is commonly used to denote Presidential Security Command-commanding general--a post that had been held by Irwin Ver, son of the ousted armed forces chief of staff, Fabian C. Ver.

Under the heading, “advanced to CG--special security projects” were listed a series of dates, running from Feb. 7, 1979, to Sept. 25, 1981, with amounts ranging from $9,700 to $66,000. The nature of these projects was unclear.

The document closed with the notation: “April 1982, I acknowledge received $1.M from PNB (presumably Philippine National Bank) for intelligence purposes minus $762,478.52 withdrawn by the AFP (common abbreviation for Armed Forces of the Philippines) by authority of the Chief of Staff (Ver) leaving a balance of about $230,000+.”

Times staff writers Dan Morain and Mark Stein in San Francisco, Carl Ingram in Sacramento and Bob Secter in Washington contributed to this story.