U.S. Planes Turned the Tide, Rebel Leader Says : Philippines: General says in interview that insurgents virtually succeeded in ‘toppling’ the government.

Declaring that “we shall not surrender, we will fight,” a key leader of the current Philippine coup asserted Saturday that the mutineers had virtually succeeded in “toppling” President Corazon Aquino’s government Friday and that the tide turned against the rebellion only after the U.S. military intervened in the conflict.

In a telephone interview with The Times from a rebel base in suburban Manila, Brig. Gen. Edgardo M. Abenina, who was identified by Aquino on Saturday as a rebel ringleader, said that no politicians were behind the effort to overthrow Aquino’s government.

Abenina described the coup-makers as a new force of reform- minded “nationalists” and former supporters of Ferdinand E. Marcos who abandoned the former president after his death. He said that all of the rebel leaders are present or former members of the Philippine armed forces.

Reacting to Aquino’s “surrender or die” ultimatum, issued from the presidential palace as loyalist forces battled the rebels Saturday in Manila, Abenina added: “We shall fight, and we shall continue fighting for what we believe in, for the honor of our nation and the dignity of our people--even if it means going into a stage of civil war.”

The interview with Abenina, a renegade who Aquino said was one of a dozen military masterminds behind the latest move to oust her government by coup, lasted an hour by overseas telephone.

Abenina, insisting that the coup has not ended, refused to say exactly where he was speaking from as the fighting continued in suburban Manila.

“I am in hiding right now,” he said. But he detailed the mutineers’ motives, their makeup, the reasons for the coup attempt’s apparent failure and rebel plans for the Philippines if the attempt eventually succeeds.

Describing his group as “fervently nationalist,” Abenina said the coup leaders include Lt. Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan, widely known by his nickname. Abenina refused to identify the group’s top field commander, referring to himself as one of the leaders and “chairman” of the group. He added that the rebel force also includes officers and men who have never taken part in previous coup attempts.

“There is not a single politician right now who is involved in this coup,” Abenina said, responding to reports of the alleged involvement of politicians that include Marcos loyalist Eduardo Cojuangco, Aquino’s estranged cousin who recently returned to the Philippines from exile in Los Angeles.

Echoing the stated aims of the last coup attempt, which was led by Honasan in August, 1987, and in which Abenina also took part, the general added, “This is strictly from within the armed forces to cleanse our own ranks.

“Our goal is to purge the armed forces and the political leadership of the government of the rampant corruption and patronage that has set in from the highest to the lowest levels.”

If their coup succeeds, Abenina said, the plotters plan to set up a ruling civilian-military junta, a “governing council,” which would have five to seven members, wield unchallenged executive power and include Filipino technocrats, professors and other experts. Abenina said he would be chairman of the council.

“Our whole point is that, for centuries, the Philippines have been under the mercy and control of a very few politicians and moneyed people,” he said. “Our goal is to free the Filipinos from the shackles of poverty and subservience that have been forced upon us by the rich and powerful, by elitist governments like that of Cory Aquino.”

Abenina insisted that his group would have succeeded but for the direct involvement of the U.S. military. He asserted that they had “succeeded in toppling the Aquino government” for several hours Friday and that they still can succeed if the U.S. Air Force does not attack their last strongholds.

Abenina, who was jailed after he seized key installations on the strategic island of Cebu during the 1987 coup attempt, confirmed that rebel troops Saturday night controlled Mactan Air Base on Cebu and hinted that it may be used as a staging area to continue the rebellion.

But Abenina said that in Manila, the coup was initially crushed after “the Americans intervened.”

He said that at the time President Bush responded to Aquino’s appeal for U.S. air support late Friday afternoon Manila time, the rebels had taken control of most key military installations in Manila, as well as the government television station. He said they had also secured the Malacanang presidential palace.

He asserted that Aquino was evacuated from her home near the palace by helicopter, with U.S. fighter planes flying escort. He said his forces believe that Aquino was then taken to Clark Air Base, a huge U.S. facility north of Manila, until the crisis was under control--although he added that his forces could not document her whereabouts. (U.S. officials in Washington denied Saturday that Aquino was either evacuated from the palace with U.S. fighter escort or taken at any time to Clark Air Base.)

“When President Bush announced he was extending military support to President Aquino on Friday, we were about to enter Camp Aguinaldo,” Abenina said, referring to the suburban military camp that houses the Philippine armed forces’ national headquarters, as well as the Defense Department of Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos.

“Ramos and (armed forces Chief of Staff Renato) De Villa had fled their offices. President Aquino had fled the palace, and we were about to take over the government.

“Then the U.S. warplanes appeared.”

Abenina said that an immediate rebel victory was thwarted by the Aquino government’s strategy of getting U.S. warplanes to pin down rebel aircraft at two Manila air force bases that were initially taken over by the mutineers.

The renegade general also said that loyalist Philippine helicopters and jet fighters then destroyed all of the rebels’ grounded aircraft and artillery in Manila during bombing and strafing runs, which were made possible only because the U.S. Air Force had pinned down the rebels in their bases.

“We succeeded in toppling this government, and suddenly we find ourselves fighting another government of a mightier power,” he said. “We simply cannot hope to win against this stronger power of the United States Air Force.”

Abenina said that Aquino’s appeal for outside military aid weakens the position of the Philippine president, whom he described Saturday as “in wobbly control” of the government.

“This is a blatantly political move by your government for the whole world to see,” Abenina said in the interview. “The Cory Aquino government allowed itself to be shown as a pawn of the United States. It is not just Cory who is a pawn of George Bush. It is the whole government that is being used as a pawn now.

“It is all because this government is willing to do anything, at the expense of our national honor and the honor of our people, just to keep themselves in power.”

Abenina, who was a heavily decorated career officer of the Philippine Constabulary with a flawless record until the series of attempted coups politicized and polarized much of the armed forces, said he was personally hurt by the U.S. intervention.

“I once felt a great love for the United States,” he said. “When I was a kid, I considered it my motherland. As the years went by, it became just an ordinary friendship.

“Now, it is just a distant acquaintance.”

What is more, Abenina said, the U.S. intervention played into the hands of the coup-makers.

“Our whole motivation is fervently nationalistic, with a social purpose,” he said, repeating that his group represents all of the military groups that have staged coup attempts in the past, together with several key officers who have never been involved in previous mutinies.

It was clear that the current uprising had been planned for more than a year.

In August, 1988, Abenina told a reporter during a luncheon interview in the Manila suburb of Quezon that he was trying to organize into a single force the various military groups opposed to corruption and patronage under Aquino.

Abenina was an escaped prisoner at the time of the interview. He had been placed in detention at Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary, after the failed 1987 coup. But during a year of detention, no charges were filed against him, and the government showed no sign either of court-martialing him or releasing him.

“I just got fed up,” he said, adding that his wife helped him escape by hiding him inside the family car after a July, 1988, visit.

Abenina was not the only coup-plotter who managed to escape from detention. Lt. Col. Honasan, whom many believe to be involved in the current coup attempt, won public admiration last year by making a daring break from a Philippine navy prison ship moored in Manila Bay.

Honasan, one of the key figures in the successful military and civilian uprising that drove Marcos from power in February, 1986, and cleared the way for Aquino’s presidency, was also the most visible leader of the 1987 uprising against her. But Honasan has not been seen during the current coup attempt. Aquino did not name him Saturday when she gave reporters a “partial list” of the plotters, and Honasan’s role in it remained unclear.

Abenina said that Honasan “definitely” was involved, although he did not say in what capacity.

“The most difficult task was bringing Honasan together with Gen. Antonio Zumel, who remained loyal to Marcos and never trusted Gringo (Honasan) because he helped overthrow Marcos,” Abenina said.

“Finally, I was able to jell into one single group almost all of these forces within the military, and I didit by making nationalism and our nation’s welfare and future the single most important goal--a goal beyond the interests of particular politicians or political groups.”

The actual timing and other specifics of the coup attempt also were planned several months ago.

In a letter dated Oct. 4, Abenina indicated that such an attempt would be made within two months, adding that “the situation here at this time is bad, very bad indeed, for our people and for our country, both of which do not face any promise of a future whatsoever.”

But the letter also went on to articulate Abenina’s frustrations, which he insisted Saturday are shared by “the overwhelming majority of Filipinos.”

Here are a few excerpts:

“This (Aquino) government has conceived, born and nurtured a hideous political monster that is unparalleled and unprecedented in the history of our country. Graft and corruption are now the norms by which the conduct of officials is measured and gauged. . . .

“This government has adopted a developmental program whose basic instrument is a contract blessed by God and whose results are litanies of greed, pride, avarice and immorality. . . .

“This government has sown the seed of dissension and promoted schism among its people through its very elitist and aristocratic policies and behavior. . . .

“This government has miserably failed the hopes and dreams of its people. . . .

“This government cannot and will not give the people a decent life and a respectable future they can be proud of as Filipinos.

“It is time for us now to free ourselves from the evil clutches and vicious machinations of this government. Let us rise up against this government of Cory Aquino and declare our freedom.”

At the end of the letter, Abenina added a quotation attributed to American baseball veteran Yogi Berra, and he repeated the quote on the telephone Saturday:

“It ain’t over,” Abenina said, “until it’s over.”

Fineman was The Times bureau chief in Manila from early 1986 until early this year.

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