$150,000 a Week Asked for Hotel : Ante Raised by Panama, Blocking Marcos Arrival

A secret plan to fly deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, his family and entourage to Panama on Thursday evening, two days earlier than scheduled, unraveled at the last minute when Panamanian officials raised “impediments” to their offer of asylum, an Administration official said Thursday.

Among the reported barriers was a demand by Panama’s military strongman, Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, that the Marcos party pay $150,000 a week to stay at a secluded hotel chosen for their new haven. While that demand was reported settled later, one source said, other hitches still threatened to force the cancellation of the party’s departure from its haven at Hickam Air Force Base outside Honolulu.

Administration officials were negotiating with the Panamanian government late Thursday to restore the invitation of asylum, extended verbally to Marcos earlier this week. The official said it appeared likely that Noriega’s demands would be met.

However, a Panamanian government official said in Panama City late Thursday night that the Marcos application had been rejected, the Associated Press reported. The official, who spoke only on condition that he not be identified, said the decision came after a meeting between President Eric Arturo Delvalle and other ranking govenment officials, the AP said.

Marcos, his wife, Imelda, and an entourage of about 40 aides and servants originally had intended to leave for Panama sometime Saturday. No reason was given for moving the departure date up to late Thursday night.

Until Noriega raised the ante, American officials had believed that plans were complete to fly the Marcos party to a Panama airport from which they were to travel “somewhere in the mountains” to an unnamed private hotel, said another source familiar with the plans.

The U.S. government was expected to issue a brief message in Marcos’ name after his takeoff from Hawaii, thanking President Reagan and the American people for granting him haven after he was forced to flee the Philippines on Feb. 25.

In the statement, Marcos was expected to insist upon his innocence of any wrong-doing over his family’s vast wealth and to pledge to pursue all legal means to clear his family’s name.

Presuming that the Marcoses eventually go to Panama as planned, they would probably remain “for a period of time,” the source said, resting and assessing the growing stack of lawsuits against them in the United States and the Philippines. Marcos still would want to return to the United States when and if the legal actions are settled and the controversy over his 20-year reign dies down, one source said.

Living at Air Base

Since Feb. 26, the Marcoses and more than 80 others who fled with them have been housed at Hickam, where the former president and his wife have lived in a well guarded two-bedroom officer’s bungalow.

His departure from Hickam apparently still would leave a tangle of unsolved legal and political problems in the United States, both small and large. Marcos will be forced to leave behind a second planeload of clothes, jewels, art objects and purely personal property seized by U.S. Customs officials last month.

The Marcos party was to be allowed to take to Panama only those items brought with them on a first Air Force jet that ferried them from the Philippines to Guam, then to Hawaii.

Court Hearing Due

A hearing is scheduled in Hawaii today on a motion by Marcos’ attorney to hold the Customs Service in contempt of court for refusing to turn over the planeload of items to the ex-president. Federal lawyers have asked the court to rule that the property should remain in U.S. hands until it is determined whether the items belong to the Marcos party or to the new Philippines government of President Corazon Aquino.

Also apparently unsettled was the payment of hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges rung up by the Marcos party at Hickam, mostly purchases at Air Force commissaries and related facilities.

Marcos also may wish to leave the United States quickly to avoid a mushrooming number of lawsuits filed against him by the Philippines government. The government filed suit in Texas on Thursday seeking $1 billion in punitive damages and $500 million that they claim Marcos illegally invested in that state. Philippine officials said this week that other suits would be filed in the near future.