Shultz Gives Aquino U.S. Support but No Hike in Aid

Secretary of State George P. Shultz met with Philippine President Corazon Aquino Friday to assure her of U.S. support for her government, but ruled out increases in aid beyond $150 million already pledged.

Shultz made no comments to reporters after his 40-minute meeting with Aquino at a guest house next to the presidential palace. However, he earlier said the Filipino government should concentrate on rearranging the economy rather than asking for more U.S. assistance.

The secretary of state also met with former supporters of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos. The supporters told him they appreciated U.S. interest in Philippine stability and mentioned Marcos “only in passing.”

Shultz planned to take a weekend holiday in Honolulu before returning to Washington.

When he arrived Thursday at the gates of Malacanang Palace for the meeting with Aquino, Shultz was greeted by about 200 leftists chanting, “Reagan terrorist.”

The protesters, who held signs saying, “Marcos Mad Dog Made in U.S.A.,” and, “Reagan the Great Terrorist,” dispersed peacefully soon after Shultz left for a series of meetings with other officials, including Vice President Salvador Laurel and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile.

Earlier, police held back more than 200 Marcos loyalists who shouted, “We want Marcos back,” as Shultz stopped to lay a wreath at the foot of a monument to the Philippine’s national hero, Jose Rizal, on his way to Malacanang.

Shultz met with former Labor Minister Blas Ople and seven other members of Marcos’ New Society Movement after a breakfast meeting with Aquino’s economic ministers.

Ople, who broke with Marcos’ party after the February revolution that ended the strongman’s 20-year rule, indicated that Shultz asked the opposition to avoid actions that could destabilize Aquino’s government as it tries to solve the economic and social problems it inherited from Marcos.

Since fleeing the country, Marcos has been urging his followers to hold demonstrations against Aquino, saying he plans to return.

President Reagan has asked the Aquino government to renew Marcos’ revoked passport so he can live in some other country, but Philippine officials say they do not want Marcos to leave the United States because it would improve his chances of destabilizing the government.

Laurel, after meeting with Reagan last week in Bali, Indonesia, said “cobwebs of doubts” existed over American support for the new government.

Personal Statement

The assertion, and a request by Laurel for additional U.S. assistance, appeared to irritate Shultz--especially because Reagan told the vice president in an exceptionally personal statement that the two countries “are as one in times of adversity,” Administration sources said.

Still, Reagan did not pledge aid above the $150 million promised in late April as part of a package that would also include accelerating the delivery of $200 million already pledged and converting another $124 million in loans to outright gifts.

Aquino pledged in a television interview Wednesday night that the government, which owes $26 billion to international bankers, would not back away from its debt obligations.

“But we are going to request . . . more liberal terms because if all our export earnings will go to the service of our debts, we will not be able to take off and we won’t have the opportunity to grow,” she said.

Annual interest on the Philippines’ debt is $2.2 billion.

In the breakfast meeting, Economic Planning Minister Solita Monsod told Shultz that the Philippines needs more aid, help in lightening its debt burden, and better trade terms. But, she said, all Shultz offered were “sympathetic noises.”