Marcos Has ‘Foreign Objects’ Taken From Lung

Deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos was improving after surgery to remove “foreign objects” from his left lung, a hospital spokeswoman said Saturday.

A tired-looking Imelda Marcos, who spent most of Saturday by her husband’s bedside at St. Francis Medical Center, described the objects as shrapnel from Marcos’ days as a guerrilla leader against the Japanese in World War II. She said shrapnel has been removed from his lungs in the past.

The hospital declined to identify what was removed from the lung.

A federal judge has delayed until at least Feb. 9 a decision on whether Marcos, 71, should be flown to New York for trial on charges of stealing tens of millions of dollars from the Philippine treasury and fraudulently borrowing $165 million from New York banks.

Marcos, who has been treated at the hospital since last Sunday for pneumonia, maintains he is too ill to stand trial.

Judge John Keenan in New York on Friday gave federal prosecutors permission to obtain Marcos’ hospital records.

Imelda Marcos, in exile here with her husband since February, 1986, told reporters that Marcos, who is attached to a respirator, is semiconscious most of the day.

Asked if he is claiming to be ill to avoid standing trial, she said, “If it was up to him, he would go to New York as soon as possible to vindicate himself of the charges.”