Leftist Party Urges Unity Behind Aquino as She Prepares for Japan Trip

The leaders of a powerful leftist political party called on the Philippine people Friday to unite and prepare for a “massive protest action” to counter what they contend is a plot to overthrow President Corazon Aquino.

Leaders of the People’s Party, which is reportedly led by founders of the Communist Party and its military wing, told a press conference that a recent series of bombings and shootings in Manila--along with a former Communist leader’s statement that a fatal bombing here in 1971 was the work of Communists--were part of a military plot to carry out a coup before February.

The charges came amid deepening confusion and tension between the government and the armed forces, and apparent divisions within the military itself, virtually on the eve of the president’s scheduled departure on a visit to Japan.

At a presidential press conference Friday, Aquino, who came to power in February after a military revolt against her predecessor, Ferdinand E. Marcos, brushed aside rumors that her government may be the target of a similar coup, headed by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, while she is out of the country for three days next week.

“Every time I am about to leave the country there are talks of coups,” Aquino told reporters at the presidential palace. “My knowledge of coups is that one does not advertise this, especially so openly. I am just not familiar with an announced coup.”

Later she added, “I am confident that when I leave this country there will be no coup, and even while I am abroad, there will be no coup.”

Aquino confirmed that she met Thursday morning with the military chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, in part to discuss rumors that elements in the Defense Ministry are planning a coup and have given it the code name “God Save the Queen.” Reports of such an undertaking have appeared this week in the Philippine press.

The president said Manila has been placed on “red alert” but added that she assumes this is standard procedure.

Ramos, meanwhile, issued a rare official statement Thursday night, which some government officials said “legitimized” the coup rumors.

In the statement, Ramos, who is known as “the man in the middle” in the controversy involving the president and the minister of defense, warned “military adventurists” in the armed forces against attempting a coup. He said this would be a “rash course of action” and “could be bloody and destabilizing.”

Military sources said Ramos’ statement was based on military intelligence reports.

With headlines such as “Ramos Thwarts Enrile Coup Bid” and “The Queen Is Saved, “ the nation’s major daily papers today reported that there had indeed been a planned coup but that Ramos averted it through a series of secret meetings with Enrile on Thursday.

Ramos did meet with Enrile but there was no official comment about what the two military leaders discussed.

Earlier this week, Manila newspapers quoted military sources as saying that a group of young officers, disenchanted with Aquino’s military policies and her effort to reach a cease-fire with Communist rebels, are planning to assault the presidential palace while Aquino is away. The next step, according to these reports, would be to “neutralize” several members of the Cabinet considered divisive or dangerous to the military’s interests, and then to ask Aquino to return to run the government.

The major drawback in this plan, the reports say, is fear of a backlash from the left, notably the Philippine Communist Party, its legal front groups and the 23,200 guerrillas it has under arms.

It was the fear of such a backlash that apparently gave rise to the People’s Party press conference Friday, which was called after a military press conference several hours earlier at which the Communists were blamed for the 1971 bombing that left nine dead and dozens injured.

At the military press conference, Col. Victor Corpuz, a soldier who turned rebel and then turned soldier again, said he helped plan the bombing, at Manila’s Plaza Miranda on Aug. 21, 1971, while he was a member of the Communist Party Central Committee. Corpuz became a kind of legendary figure when he defected to the insurgents in the late 1960s. Ten years ago, he surrendered and spent years in military prisons. He said he had returned to the military just this week.

The 1971 bombing killed most of the leaders of the Liberal Party, which was headed at the time by Benigno S. Aquino Jr., husband of the current president. Benigno Aquino was killed exactly 12 years later in an assassination many Filipinos blame on Marcos.

Marcos blamed the Plaza Miranda bombing and the Aquino assassination on the Communists, and in 1972 he used the bombing to justify declaring martial law. But few Philippine political leaders believed him. It was widely accepted that Marcos himself engineered the bombing of his political opponents.

Col. Corpuz said Friday that the Communist Party leadership thought the 1971 bombing would “hasten the development of the revolution, . . . intensify the contradictions within the ruling class, which can hasten its downfall, . . . and push many of those who were noncommitted . . . over to the side of the left.”

Asked whether he believed the Communists were also behind the recent wave of bombings and shoot outs, Corpus said: “I don’t think so. In my personal assessment, these bombings are being done by Marcos loyalists.”

But later he said: “It can also be the work of the NPA (the Communist New People’s Army), to hasten the downfall of the regime. It will help their cause. We cannot discount that possibility.”

At the People’s Party press conference, Bernabe Buscayno, who is said to be a founder of the NPA and one of three men Corpuz said helped him plan the Plaza Miranda bombing, flatly denied the charge.

“These accusations are all lies,” said Buscayno, who was released from prison on Aquino’s orders two days after she came to power in February.

Buscayno and other party leaders hinted that Corpuz, “a former comrade and friend,” was being used by the military as part of the plot to overthrow Aquino. “It aims to destabilize the administration and sabotage the process of peace,” Buscayno said.

He said that the Corpuz confession, combined with the recent bombings and an intensified campaign by Enrile warning of an imminent takeover by the Communists, are designed “to transfer the anger of the people to the progressive and leftist organizations and elements.”

Buscayno and his party secretary said the Corpuz allegations were also aimed at subverting the prospects of a cease-fire agreement between the government and the Communist insurgents.

At her press conference Friday, Aquino said she knew nothing about Corpuz’s confession, which Enrile aides had leaked to several foreign journalists more than a week ago. The president appeared to be stunned by several questions on Corpuz’s allegations, which she referred to Agriculture Minister Ramon Mitra, who also serves as one of her cease-fire negotiators.

Mitra, who was at Plaza Miranda during the the 1971 bombing and still bears shrapnel in his body, conceded to reporters that Corpuz had told him recently of his involvement in the incident, and that he referred the matter to Gen. Ramos, the chief of staff.

“I did not think it was necessary to inform the president about this,” Mitra said.