Aquino Won’t Give In to Enrile Demands

Philippine President Corazon Aquino said today she will not bow to demands by her powerful defense minister to fire left-wing Cabinet members and restore temporarily the constitution of deposed strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Her comments in an interview with Reuters virtually guarantee renewed sparring between Aquino and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile just days after they seemed to have reached a political truce.

Enrile was co-leader of the civilian-backed military revolt that installed her in power, but he has been critical ever since.

The president denied she was behind widely publicized demands from her Cabinet allies for Enrile’s resignation, declaring: “I fight my own battles. If I want to say something I will say it myself.

“I may be a woman, but if I wasn’t afraid of someone like Marcos, who had all the forces of government behind him, I am not about to retreat if there is any necessity to fight.”

For several weeks, Enrile has been bombarding the Aquino government with demands for fundamental change.

They ranged from scrapping plans for a January plebiscite on a constitution she supports to a step-up of military action against the 17-year-old Communist insurgency.

Enrile also wanted Aquino to fire more than half a dozen Cabinet ministers who the armed forces believe are too left-wing.

On Tuesday, after publicly ignoring a campaign that fueled speculation about a military coup, Aquino met Enrile privately and hammered out what seemed on the surface to be a truce.

But in today’s interview, Aquino said she actually agreed with only two of the five requests that he made--setting a deadline for a cease-fire agreement with the Communist rebels and weeding out corrupt and incompetent officials appointed to local government positions in the provinces.