Aquino Criticizes Asian Neighbors for Depending on Foreign Aid

On the eve of U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s second visit to Manila in two months, Philippine President Corazon Aquino on Monday sharply criticized her Southeast Asian neighbors for becoming too dependent on foreign aid.

Taking a distinctively pro-American line, Aquino said that the richer, industrialized nations such as the United States should not be blamed for their “seeming indifference” toward the troubled economies of the region.

Instead, she said in her opening address to the annual meeting of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, the governments of Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines have only themselves to blame for the problems of lagging trade and stunted economic growth.

“Charity begins at home,” Aquino told the region’s foreign ministers, who were packed into the ballroom of a luxury hotel by Manila Bay. “My own country is learning the hard way that strength must be built first from within.”

Thinly Veiled Jab

Aquino, whose presidential campaign earlier this year set the stage for a military and civilian revolt that overthrew the 20-year rule of Ferdinand E. Marcos, also took a thinly veiled jab at the authoritarian regimes remaining in the region, charging that the pro-Western ASEAN bloc still cannot “stand tall” on issues involving “humanity in political order.”

And she leveled unprecedented criticism against the alliance, accusing the 19-year-old association, which Shultz is due to address on Friday, of being largely ineffective.

“We were established for economic cooperation and progress,” Aquino declared. “What we have accomplished in these respects is more kindly left unmentioned. I think the time is well past for talking.”

But when Shultz arrives this evening to begin his five-day visit here, most analysts expect just that--a series of discussions with Aquino, members of her Cabinet and the Philippine political opposition, as well as official talks with the foreign ministers of the ASEAN member nations, which include some of America’s closest allies.

Nuclear-Free Zone

Among the issues facing Shultz will be a move within the alliance to declare the region a “nuclear-free zone,” which could jeopardize the U.S. military presence at Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base north of Manila. The Pentagon refuses, as a rule, to say whether or not its vessels or aircraft are nuclear-equipped.

The anti-nuclear movement in the region has been spearheaded by New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange, who is also expected to meet with Shultz when Lange visits Manila later this week. Lange triggered a crisis in the ANZUS alliance, consisting of Australia, New Zealand and the United States, when in 1984 he banned visits by American ships at New Zealand ports unless the U.S. Navy would pledge that they carried no nuclear weapons.

The meeting between Lange and Shultz would be the first since the ban was imposed nearly two years ago.

But the most crucial issue confronting the secretary of state will be a series of complaints from the six ASEAN governments about increasingly protectionist trade policies in the United States--specifically, a trade bill recently approved by the U.S. House that severely restricts the sale of foreign-made goods in America. Those six nations would be among those worst-hit by the proposed legislation.

‘It Is Not Malevolence’

In what several ASEAN delegates called an advance apology for Shultz, Aquino told the foreign ministers Monday: “It is not malevolence that moves the developed economies to act in derogation of our interests, but their own survival.

“The seeming indifference of the rich countries to our economic situation should have been motivation enough for ASEAN countries to take the initiative in looking into the potential of the region for alternative paths to sustained progress.”

Aquino’s government, however, will reap financial benefits from Shultz’s visit in the coming week.

On Wednesday morning, he and Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel will sign a document that instantly transfers $200 million in U.S. aid money to the Philippine treasury. The money is part of the $900 million that the U.S. government has agreed to pay the Philippines over an eight-year period for the use of the Subic and Clark bases.