Marcos’ Running Mate Says He’ll End Revolt

Arturo Tolentino, the running mate of Ferdinand E. Marcos who had proclaimed himself Philippine leader with the support of hundreds of soldiers, said today that he will end his rebellion within hours.

President Corazon Aquino earlier gave Tolentino 24 hours to end what she called a “desperate” challenge to her rule.

The 75-year-old Tolentino, a former Marcos foe who ran with him in the fraud-tainted Feb. 7 elections, took the presidential oath of office Sunday, saying he had been pressured to do so by Marcos loyalists. Marcos was deposed by a civilian-military revolt and fled the country in February.

After taking the oath of office, Tolentino took refuge with a cordon of soldiers in the Manila Hotel but left by the fifth-floor fire escape today for a four-hour meeting with a representative of the Aquino government.

Tolentino said his political supporters still at the hotel will walk out early Tuesday.

Soldiers Still an Issue

It was not clear, however, whether the 100 or more soldiers at the hotel will go along. Tolentino said the question of whether soldiers will leave “will be taken up by the military among themselves.”

Military men who took part in today’s talks did not comment after the meeting ended at the Army-Navy Club, next to the U.S. Embassy on Manila Bay.

“The purpose of the rally was the oath-taking, and that has been achieved,” Tolentino said Sunday after being sworn in at the hotel before about 10,000 Marcos loyalists. “There are political issues to be discussed with the government, such as constitutionalism, democracy, the rule of law.”

Tolentino said he received no assurances today from the government that it will not file charges against him but said a meeting between the two sides is planned for noon Tuesday. No government official was immediately available for comment.

Sedition Charges

Aquino threatened Sunday to file sedition charges against Tolentino.

In a news conference earlier today at the presidential palace’s guest house, Aquino said she is not concerned about Tolentino’s revolt, which she said was “instigated by Mr. Marcos.”

Marcos, in a telephone interview today from his exile home in Honolulu, said he could not yet make a “fair comment” on the situation because “I am not a personal witness to what has happened.”