Marcos Fitness Test for Court Date Reported

Ousted Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who last month said he was ill in order to delay a date with a federal grand jury in Virginia, underwent a medical examination in Hawaii this week to establish his fitness to travel and testify, government sources said Tuesday.

In a two-sentence statement, the Justice Department said that Marcos visited Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu “in relation to a legal matter which is under the cognizance” of the department. A spokesman declined to comment further.

Sources said that the hospital checkup was demanded by Justice Department officials who questioned Marcos’ contention that a bad case of the flu made the trip to Virginia medically risky.

The results of the examination could not be learned Tuesday.

Marcos had been scheduled to appear Jan. 22 before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., that is looking into allegations of fraud and kickbacks involving U.S. military aid to the Philippines during Marcos’ rule.

His appearance was delayed until mid-February after he complained of a case of the flu. Marcos said at the time that his doctors warned him that he could contract pneumonia, severe asthma or tuberculosis if he left Hawaii for the frigid Virginia weather.

Asked then if the doctors told him he was too ill to make the 4,829-mile trip to the East Coast, Marcos replied, “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

Days later, however, his health apparently took a dramatic turn for the better. As Filipino voters prepared last week to vote on a new constitution, Marcos dispatched videotape cassettes to his homeland that showed him bare-chested, lifting weights and shadow-boxing in his Hawaii home.

The tape, prepared earlier, was part of what the deposed dictator called a New Year’s greeting to the Filipino people.

Last Thursday, the State Department barred him and his wife, Imelda, from taking a chartered Boeing 707 jet from Honolulu to the Philippines, a flight of roughly 5,300 miles. Philippine officials said the aborted flight was part of a plot to seize power from President Corazon Aquino before voters could ratify a new constitution and give her revolutionary government a legal basis.

Marcos later called a press conference to declare that he was “being treated like a prisoner” in Hawaii because he “will be prevented from boarding any plane for the Philippines.”

If Marcos is deemed fit to travel to Virginia, he probably will be questioned about his knowledge of Philippine military purchases financed by the U.S. Defense Security Assistance Agency.

The inquiry is reported to involve a total of $100 million in military-goods contracts awarded to American firms that retained Marcos associates as agents.