Protest Raps Prices, Burns Aquino Effigy

About 5,000 leftist demonstrators protesting against rising gasoline prices burned Philippine President Corazon Aquino in effigy today, the fourth anniversary of the murder of her husband, Benigno.

They marched through a busy commercial district in central Manila chanting anti-government slogans and waving placards that said “Roll down gasoline prices” and “Reduce fuel taxes.”

Troops behind barbed-wire barricades backed by fire engines and water cannons blocked the marchers on a small bridge near the presidential palace.

In another part of Manila, about 2,000 people, including senior government officials, today packed a Roman Catholic church to attend a Mass for Aquino’s assassinated husband, Benigno (Ninoy) S. Aquino, whose death on Aug. 21, 1983, sparked protests that led to the revolt and swept his widow to power.

‘Ninoy’ Given Credit

“If not for ‘Ninoy’, I would not be president today. If not for him, all of us would probably still be in stupor,” the 54-year-old president told supporters in a park named after her husband, shot dead at Manila airport after returning from self-imposed exile in the United States.

Manila newspapers carried special supplements devoted to the former senator and the Central Bank Thursday issued new 500-peso bills depicting his life and death. The senate passed a bill on Monday renaming Manila airport after him.

“What he did, what he suffered, what he achieved in his death make it impossible to call anyone else in living memory a hero,” Aquino said during the Mass.