Firms Seized From Marcos Pals to Be Sold

President Corazon Aquino today ordered the sale of 386 bankrupt companies seized from associates of Ferdinand E. Marcos to fund a massive land reform program seen as critical in combating an 18-year Communist insurgency.

The announcement came as suspected Communist assassins shot and killed a military officer and his driver on a busy street corner today in what authorities said may mark the start of an urban guerrilla war in the capital.

Aquino said the bankrupt firms, described as “non-performing assets,” have a book value of $5.25 billion but a much lower market price of $1.19 billion. They include foreclosed properties, banks, newspapers, hotels, mining companies, sugar mills and television networks.

In a nationally televised news conference, Aquino read a proclamation ordering the sale of the companies, which were financed by government bank loans to Marcos associates.

In her first news conference since October, Aquino said proceeds from the sale will fund the land reform program in rice and corn farms, which Marcos started.

Marcos was able to redistribute a fourth of the total target of about 2 million acres of rice and corn land over 13 years. The 1-year-old Aquino government hopes to complete the distribution in two years and move on to sugar and coconut lands.

Under the program, the government will buy rice and corn lands for distribution to tenant farmers at minimal cost and open markets for their products.

The Communists are demanding the confiscation of all large estates for immediate redistribution to farmers.

In the fatal shootings today in Manila, Lt. Col. Benjamin Casabar, 39, deputy controller for the armed forces civil relations office, and his driver, Sgt. Alberto Lorenzana, 37, were attacked in their military jeep while waiting for a traffic light to change.

Col. Honesto Isleta, Casabar’s supervisor, said three men armed with handguns approached the jeep and pumped six bullets into the soldiers.