Marcos Has Cancer, Wants to Die at Home, Paper Says

A newspaper in Manila said today that ousted Philippine leader Ferdinand E. Marcos is seriously ill with cancer and wants to return to die in his homeland.

The tabloid People’s Tonight quoted President Corazon Aquino’s uncle, Francisco Sumulong--one of two emissaries sent to Hawaii to talk with Marcos--as saying the exiled leader told him that his doctors suspect he has a cancerous growth and he wants to spend his “last days” in his homeland.

Sumulong, the majority leader in the Lower House, said Marcos told him he has undergone two major operations, one close to the lung and another on the leg. Sumulong was not immediately available for comment.

He said on Monday that Marcos was willing to turn over unspecified amounts of money to the government as a gesture of his sincerity if he is allowed to come back. People’s Tonight quoted him as saying Marcos might turn over $7 billion.

Earlier in the day Aquino said Marcos could not hope to be allowed back into the Philippines until he returned “what he stole from our country.”

There have been repeated rumors for several years that the 70-year-old Marcos has been suffering fatal illnesses, including lupus. He has always laughed off the reports, saying he was only suffering from the effects of shrapnel wounds he received as a soldier in World War II.