100,000 Leftists Mourn Slain Filipino Labor Leader in March Through Manila : Show of Strength Seen as Signal to Aquino; Enrile Resignation Demanded

More than 100,000 people marched for 10 hours Thursday through downtown Manila to mourn last week’s gangland-style killing of labor leader Rolando Olalia and to tell President Corazon Aquino that she cannot ignore the nation’s radical left.

Many of the mourners also demanded the resignation of Aquino’s controversial defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, who has been outspoken in his criticism of government efforts to sign a cease-fire with Communist insurgents.

It was the largest funeral procession in Manila since the 1983 mass outpouring of sympathy for Aquino’s slain husband, Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Military authorities clearly were shaken by the size and makeup of Thursday’s highly disciplined procession.

Rebels Join March

Among the marchers who followed the red flatbed truck bearing Olalia’s remains through 10 miles of city streets were laborers, peasants, leftist leaders and thousands of street troops of the Communist New People’s Army, whose 17-year rebellion has left thousands dead in the Philippine countryside since Aquino took office last February.

The funeral march was the biggest show of strength by the Philippine left and the Communists since the “people’s war” began.

The mourners included such prominent leftists as Satur Ocampo and Antonio Zumel, the two negotiators for the Communist rebels in cease-fire talks with the government. Both men were surrounded by a security cordon of New People’s Army regulars.

No Violence, Few Tears

There was no violence. There were few tears, few signs of anger, and even fewer chants against imperialism and fascism.

Rather, many analysts said, Thursday’s procession was a powerful warning to Aquino that, in the radically shifting political winds, the nation’s militant left remains strong and growing and that major sectors of the Filipino masses are increasingly dissatisfied with her rule, despite a February rebellion that Aquino says liberated them from dictatorship.

Before the march, Olalia’s eldest son sat quietly in a front pew of a funeral chapel wearing a T-shirt that said, “Give Peace a Chance.” A few feet away, beside his father’s open casket, was a six-foot condolence wreath from the New People’s Army--the armed force waging a bloody rebellion against the government in the Philippine countryside.

Blood and Bullets

A note pinned to the leaves warned, “Every drop of your blood that falls in the soil is like a bullet that fuels our war for freedom.”

The messages reflected the causes of the advocates of peace and the street soldiers of the “people’s war” who marched through Manila, joining the political left and center against an increasingly powerful right.

“We believe that you will understand the sight before you now--workers, peasants, the poor and dispossessed, grieving and carrying the remains of Comrade Lando (Olalia’s nickname),” Olalia’s family said in a written appeal read by his daughter through a loudspeaker from a battered jeep half a mile from Aquino’s palace. “Let us link arms and march together.”

Aquino Not in Procession

Aquino did not join the procession, nor did any of her top officials. She did not even hear the letter read. Hundreds of troops in full combat gear and armed with riot shields, truncheons and M-16 rifles stood between the marchers and the palace, blocking their way.

Reliable sources in the political left said that Aquino, who has been hardening her stance against the Communists and militant left in recent weeks, had asked the family to call off this week’s protests by Olalia’s union and its political affiliates.

As the Olalia family mourned a man tortured and killed by unknown assailants, Aquino delivered a speech Thursday to foreign investors that was as hard on the nation’s left as its ultraright. Both, she said, share the blame for the recent wave of killings, ambushes, bombings and kidnapings that began in earnest with Olalia’s murder.

“We cannot tolerate any plans to undermine the authority of the government and the stability of Philippine society,” she said. “We did not drive out a tyrant only to end up with the abuse of democracy.”

Hosting Mayor Feinstein

And as the disciplined marchers passed the road leading to Aquino’s palace shouting, “N.P.A., N.P.A.”--the initials of the Communist army--Aquino was hosting a cocktail party and dinner inside for San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein.

In speeches throughout the day, though, leaders of the funeral march were far more explicit in who is to blame for the brutal killing of Olalia, the leader of the Philippines’ largest militant labor union, the May 1st Movement.

“Oust Enrile and His Boys,” demanded one placard in the procession, referring to the defense minister. Enrile had been a frequent critic of the May 1st Movement, and, though he denies it, many on the left now blame him for the murder. Another poster referred to Enrile by his recently acquired nickname and suggested that he join deposed dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos in exile in Honolulu.

Message to ‘Rambo’ Enrile

“Rambo,” the sign read, “Go to Hawaii.”

The march was also a vehicle for the leaders of the militant left to voice their own concern about the recent violence that has left many Manila residents in fear and a soap box from which to air their grievances against Aquino.

Interviewed as he marched Thursday morning, the usually circumspect Satur Ocampo, while appealing to Aquino to resume the peace talks, was critical of the president. Although still hopeful that he and Aquino’s negotiators can arrive at a cease-fire agreement in the 17-year war that has left thousands of Filipinos dead this year alone, Ocampo conceded that he is “less optimistic than before.”

“President Aquino has never run short on good intentions, but as an administrator, she is lacking in many fields,” Ocampo said. “Her greatest failure is her inability to crack down on dissent in the armed forces.

‘She Is Not in Control’

“Definitely, she is not in control of her military,” he said, adding that that alone could make any cease-fire unworkable, whether or not Aquino enforces the 10-day deadline she announced Wednesday for a cease-fire agreement.

“Unless there is a consensus in the Aquino government, no cease-fire will hold,” Ocampo said.