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Vice President of Philippines Visits Marcos

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From Associated Press

Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel, without the blessing of President Corazon Aquino, met Thursday with ailing former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who is pleading for a “final journey” to his homeland.

As he went up to Marcos’ room in the intensive care unit of St. Francis Medical Center, Laurel said: “I don’t think he’s going to take any plane rides. I just want to hear what he has to say.”

Aquino has said that Marcos, indicted on U.S. racketeering charges, would never be allowed to return.

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Laurel, who has been at odds with Aquino since she took office in 1986, refused to disclose the details of his conversation with Marcos, his doctors and his wife, Imelda.

“I just can’t talk about it now,” he said. An aide said he would make a statement before leaving Hawaii today.

Greeted by Supporters

Laurel was greeted at the hospital by more than 80 Marcos supporters, who crowded into the lobby and halls. Ignacio Garcia, a civil rights lawyer hired by the Marcoses on Monday, said Marcos was buoyed by Laurel’s visit and able to talk to the vice president.

Marcos, 71, was listed in critical but stable condition. Hospital officials said he needed emergency surgery Wednesday because of fluids building up in his lungs, and he was breathing with the assistance of a respirator.

His son, Ferdinand Jr., relayed a letter to Aquino on Wednesday night asking that his father be allowed to return to his homeland.

“I come to request nothing more than the basic human right of all Filipinos to die in the Philippines,” he wrote. “It is self-evident in this age of enlightenment that no civilized nation would deny a citizen the right to die in his homeland.

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“I therefore hope that you can see beyond your personal feelings, and by showing compassion, act to reconcile rather than further divide the nation. I am also certain that your action now will permit President Bush and the American federal courts to allow this, my father’s final journey.”

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