Troops Guard Manila Amid Coup Rumors

The Philippine military sealed off all key civilian and military installations in the capital early today in an unprecedented security operation variously identified by the government as “a dress rehearsal” or preemptive action to prevent a coup by factions of the military.

President Corazon Aquino called an emergency cabinet meeting this morning, but no details were released, and the threat that provoked the military operation remained unclear.

Presidential press secretary Teodoro Benigno told reporters before the meeting that Aquino ordered the military to secure the government and Church-owned radio and television stations when she heard of unusual troop movements during the night. The orders were implemented by military Chief of Staff Gen . Fidel V. Ramos, Benigno said.

Speculation on Enrile

Ramos attended the cabinet meeting, but Aquino’s controversial Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile did not, leading to speculation that Aquino may be preparing to remove Enrile after several weeks of behind-the-scenes sniping between the two leaders.

At lest two other key Philippine cities were similarly secured by government troops. Gen. Domingo Rio, regional commander on the island of Negros south of Manila, said the military had occupied all radio stations and public utilities in the provincial capital of Bacolod to guard against a planned coup in Manila. Rio, who announced the action over the radio this morning, said the action was taken on Ramos’ orders.

Similar radio annoucements were made today in Davao, the principal city on the strategic, southernmost island of Mindanao. Government and military sources had announced on Friday that a group of dissident military officers were planning “some sort of attack” on the island as part of a campaign to destabilize Aquino’s government.

The president’s brother-in-law, Agapito Aquino, said soldiers still loyal to deposed president Ferdinand E. Marcos were behind the plot, which, he said, would attempt to exploit divisions within the heavily armed Muslim National Liberation Front secessionist army.

Other signs of military dissent surfaced in the central city of Cebu Saturday morning, when 1,500 soldiers and civilians intensely loyal to Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile staged an anti-Communist rally inside the principal military base there.

Demands by Soldiers

The soldiers, among them several colonels and a general, demanded the removal of several of Aquino’s cabinet ministers, a new presidential election next year and the reconvening of the pro-Marcos National Assembly, which was unilaterally dissolved last March by President Aquino, who took power after the nation’s military and civilians rebelled against Marcos’ dictatorial rule.

Rumors that Marcos loyalists had taken over the modern assembly building on the outskirts of Manila swept through the capital just after midnight today, apparently triggering Aquino’s order to Ramos. A government security detail assigned there last May reported that they had been ordered on alert, but that all was quiet.

On the surface, the mood throughout Manila Sunday morning was peaceful and normal. Thousands of joggers jammed the city’s main boulevard for their usual Sunday run. Balloon salesmen hawked their wares in the downtown parks, and families began setting up blankets for Sunday picnics.

Government teleivision was, as usual, broadcasting the “Family Rosary Crusade” and Sunday sermons from a variety of priests and pastors in a nation where 85 percent of the population is Catholic.

Aquino was scheduled to appear this afternoon along with Catholic prelate, Cardinal Jaime Sin, at a large Manila rally launching a Church campaign against both Communism and liberal capitalism.

Muslim Leader Slain

The military’s security operation, which began before midnight and continued through this morning, followed another day of violence and killing in Manila on Saturday.

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a key Muslim leader from the southern island of Mindanao in gangland fashion outside a hotel in Manila’s tourist district.

Ulbert Ulama Tugung, a supporter of Aquino who headed an autonomous parliament in Muslim-dominated Western Mindanao, was in Manila for a meeting to chart the upcoming campaign for the ratification of Aquino’s newly drafted national constitution.

Ulama was the third political leader assassinated in Manila in the past 10 days.

Police said his body was raked with M-16 fire and that he was killed along with an aide and the chief of the hotel’s security. They said they knew of no motive in the killing, which came in the wake of similar gangland murders of top labor leader Rolando Olalia on Nov. 13 and of pro-Enrile politician David Puzon last Wednesday.

A few hours after Tugung’s murder, about 200 heavily armed combat troops took up positions around the state-owned television station. Other contingents, backed by armored personnel carriers, secured Aquino’s presidential palace and Manila’s three major military bases. There did not appear to be any connection between the increased security the shooting.

Troops Guard Station

Several employees of the government-owned-TV broadcast complex, which was a crucial target in last February’s coup that overthrew Ferdinand E. Marcos, quoted deputy Manila police commander Emiliano Templo is telling them to “stay calm.” The operation, he said, was only “a dress rehearsal.”

Another group of 450 combat troops secured the powerful Catholic Church-owned radio station, Radio Veritas. Caloy Sismundo, a Veritas spokesman, said the troops told them their mission was “to secure Veritas against any possible infiltration.” Sismundo added that the troops said they were guarding against attacks by “subversives” and that they planned to stay for two or three days.

Manila has been rocked by rumors of pending coups, aborted coups, limited coups, mini-coups and countercoups for the past month.

Enrile and his 700-man security group, who had been sharply critical of Aquino’s counterinsurgency policies, have been the focal point of the coup rumors. But several key military sources said this week that the group’s disenchantment with the Aquino administration had been defused two weeks ago during a key meeting between Enrile and Gen. Ramos.

‘Recommendations’ Made

The two military leaders, who led the Catholic Church-sponsored coup against Marcos last Feb. 22, together drew up a list of “recommendations,” which Ramos presented to the president when she returned from a state visit to Japan 10 days ago.

The list, contained in a letter signed by Ramos, asks Aquino to replace several cabinet ministers whom the military considers inept or corrupt, discontinue efforts to negotiate a ceasefire with leaders of the Communist insurgency and fire many of the local officials Aquino appointed to gubenatorial and mayoral posts after firing thousands of pro-Marcos officials.

Ramos reiterated his opposition to Aquino’s ongoing peace initiatives with the rebels on Saturday, declaring in a statement that the rebel’s negotiating group, the National Democratic Front, has no control over the Communist New Peoples Army commanders, who continue to assassinate local officials and storm town halls in the Philippine countryside.

It was also clear on Saturday, however, that there is lingering anger with the Aquino administration among some of the Enrile supporters. Anti-communist military demonstrations also took place at a camp in Butuan City on Mindanao, where soldiers and officers demanded the government abandon its peace initiatives with the Communist rebels and fire inept ministers.