Aquino Makes a Surprise Visit to Village

Twenty-four hours after her government raised the alarm over a new coup plot, President Corazon Aquino made a short, surprise trip out of the capital Thursday, her first in more than six weeks.

“I am not afraid of what will happen to me,” she told villagers in the province of Camarines Sur, southeast of Manila. “What is important is that I see for myself what I can do for you.”

Her helicopter landed at Tara, a barrio beside a bridge blown out by Communist guerrillas early last month. The president inspected the damage and work on a replacement span under construction by military engineers.

Presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno said the 50-minute foray was agreed upon Wednesday night at Malacanang Palace, which has been ringed by heavy military security since the purported coup plot was unveiled.

In Manila Since Coup

Aquino had not left Manila since a bloody but unsuccessful coup attempt on Aug. 28. Her trip to the troubled Bicol region of Luzon Island was apparently designed to demonstrate that her administration is not frozen by threats from rightist military rebels and leftist guerrillas.

A cartoon in the leftist newspaper Malaya on Thursday depicted Aquino hidden behind a wall of sandbags and machine guns. “Stay calm. . . . We are in control of the situation,” the caption said.

Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, military chief of staff, warned Aquino and her Cabinet on Wednesday of what he said is a new conspiracy to overthrow the government by the end of this month. This time, Ramos said, rebellious troops have the support of several rightist political figures, including Eduardo Cojuangco, who is Aquino’s cousin and an ally of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Military officers said the plot was uncovered in a series of raids on Manila area hide-outs of rebel troops late Tuesday and early Wednesday. Brig. Gen. Alexander Aguirre, head of the Capital Command, said Thursday that his men are looking for more rebel hide-outs and further raids will be made.

Troop Exercises Continue

At Camp Aguinaldo in suburban Manila, soldiers continued “tactical exercises” designed to defend the armed forces headquarters building on the camp grounds. Both Camp Aguinaldo and Malacanang Palace were attacked in the Aug. 28 coup attempt.

Meanwhile, National Bureau of Investigation Director Jose Antonio Carpio announced that the government has posted a $12,500 reward for the capture of Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan, leader of the August plot. Carpio specified that the government wants Honasan taken alive so that he can be questioned about “the patrons behind the group of violent rightists.”

Aquino’s main political foe, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, suggested in a radio interview that the government’s announcement of a coup plot might be a decoy.

“They are conditioning the minds of our people that we are in a grave crisis so that they can have a basis for declaring an emergency rule or martial law,” he declared.

However, shortly after he spoke, Aquino, on her provincial trip, turned down a request from Bicol region businessmen for a declaration of martial law in that area. On Wednesday, Catalino Macaraig Jr., Aquino’s executive secretary, insisted that the security situation had not neared the point where martial law could be declared.