Aquino Slates May 11 Elections for Parliament

President Corazon Aquino today scheduled national elections for May 11 to choose a new Parliament, and said elections for local officials will be held soon after.

Aquino, who took office in February after a military-civilian revolt that deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos, called the elections an “indispensable part of our normalization process.” She said the date for local elections will be set later.

Aquino made the announcements during a nationally televised interview on the government-run station.

She made no mention of any presidential elections, which Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and others have urged.

Constitution Vote Set

A proposed new constitution, drafted last month by a presidential commission and up for referendum on Feb. 2, would keep Aquino in office for a full-six year term, until 1992.

She argues that her term should last until then on the ground that she was the real winner of the fraud-tainted presidential election that preceded Marcos’ ouster. The National Assembly, dominated by Marcos, declared him the winner.

In March, Aquino scrapped Marcos’ constitution, disbanded the National Assembly, and proclaimed a “freedom constitution” that gave her sole law-making powers. She said today that ratification of the new constitution would end “the extraordinary powers of my presidency.”

Meanwhile today, armed forces chief Gen. Fidel Ramos said he could not rule out the possibility of a coup against Aquino when she is in Japan next week.