Coup Crushed, Manila Says Amid Fighting

Philippine troops early today continued to battle pockets of rebel holdouts in this capital’s financial center, but Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos declared that the attempted coup has been crushed.

Manila’s international airport, closed for three days because of a the coup attempt, reopened today, an airport spokesman said.

Ramos’ assertion of victory Sunday came a day after loyalist soldiers repulsed a fierce four-hour assault on military headquarters by mutineers seeking to topple President Corazon Aquino.

At the same time, President Bush said that he is prepared to provide additional military assistance if necessary to protect American lives.

The fourth day of the military coup attempt began at dawn, as rebel snipers fired volleys of machine-gun fire from skyscrapers in the Makati district, the nation’s business center. Loyalist troops responded with recoilless rifles and heavy machine guns, causing widespread damage.

An estimated 200 rebels were holding out in the district’s numerous condominiums, office buildings, shopping malls and hotels.

An Australian diplomat said early today that the office building that houses his nation’s embassy had been under attack on Sunday and that now rebel snipers were inside and shooting back at Philippine soldiers on the streets below.

Similar skirmishes were reported up and down Ayala Boulevard, the district’s main thoroughfare. At one point, a Manila radio station broadcast an appeal for ambulances, saying many civilians lay wounded along Makati’s Pasay Road, but this could not be confirmed. Elsewhere, Manila was returning to normal, with government and private sector employees reporting for work.

Despite the continued fighting, Sunday’s failure by the rebels to capture Camp Aguinaldo, the heart of the nation’s armed forces, was seen by the government as a fatal blow to the coup attempt, the sixth and bloodiest attempt Aquino has faced since coming to power in 1986.

At least 56 soldiers have been killed and hundreds more wounded since the rebellion began, military officials said. There were also at least 20 civilians killed and scores hurt in the cross-fire, making this the bloodiest siege yet against the Aquino government. Red Cross and hospital officials put the total number of wounded at 500.

“The cost certainly has been terrible,” conceded military Chief of Staff Renato de Villa.

Yet government officials were flushed with a sense of victory. By midday Sunday, more than 600 rebels had surrendered, including Lt. Col. Cesar de la Pena, who led the assault on the camp.

“The attempted coup by rebel soldiers has been crushed,” Ramos declared at a news conference on a bomb-scarred parade ground at Camp Aguinaldo in suburban Quezon City. He added that only “mopping-up operations” remain.

Security aides pounced on a soldier before he could explode a grenade at an outdoor stage where Ramos and Gen. De Villa were speaking, a military spokesman said today.

Brig. Gen. Oscar Florendo said the suspect was arrested Sunday as he was removing a grenade from his pocket. No injuries were reported.

Aquino, in a national radio and television address, ruled out a cease-fire and vowed: “I will fulfill what I said--no cease-fire. What they started, we will finish.”

Rejecting suggestions by Cabinet members that she declare a “state of siege”--saying that it would be tantamount to martial law--she pledged that lower-ranking enlisted men who joined the rebellion would not be punished.

The fierce, last-ditch battle at Camp Aguinaldo began just before dawn on Sunday with a furious rebel artillery attack, including 105-millimeter howitzers and heavy machine-gun fire. Using an armored vehicle, about 200 rebels broke through the gates of the sprawling camp but were repulsed by a heavy counterattack from loyalist troops. After a four-hour battle, sometimes hand-to-hand, the rebels were forced to retreat, leading to De La Pena’s formal surrender.

Several hours later, another rebel leader, Brig. Gen. Marcelo Blando, commander of Ft. Magsaysay, surrendered in the city’s Greenhills District with about 400 army soldiers and Scout Rangers, military officials said. The mutiny was led by marines and army Scout Rangers, considered the elite of the 160,000-member armed forces.

De Villa said that about 400 rebels remained in control of Mactan Air Base in Cebu, about 350 miles south of Manila, but that he expected to regain the facility by today. Government helicopters dropped leaflets urging the rebels to surrender.

Since the fighting began, more than 10,000 people have fled their homes, while many shops were closed and garbage piled high in the streets. Schools were closed indefinitely.

Philippine airline officials said that the extended closure of the airport was not due to a direct threat from the rebels but because two 747 passenger planes, which were landing just as the coup was starting, were diverted to the Cebu base and have been in rebel hands since then. The government reportedly feared that the mutinous soldiers at Cebu would use the jumbo jets to transport rebel troops to Manila.

President Bush, meanwhile, said that he is prepared to take additional military action to defend the Philippine government against mutinous troops if necessary.

In a letter, Bush formally notified Congress that, at Aquino’s request, he had ordered military air support to prevent rebel planes from taking off from two air bases seized during the revolt.

“At present, I do not foresee the need for U.S. military action in addition to the measures described,” Bush said. “I am prepared, however, to take additional actions to protect the lives of Americans, should they be threatened, and, if requested, to provide further assistance to the government of the Philippines.”

The letter, sent to Congress Saturday, was released by the White House on Sunday morning in Malta, where Bush was holding two days of talks with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Bush Administration officials also confirmed reports Sunday that Aquino asked the United States to bomb and strafe rebel positions to help repel the revolt--a request that was rejected.

U.S. jets provided air cover for government troops on Friday and the early morning hours of Saturday. A spokesman for Clark Air Base said there were no American warplanes in the skies over Manila on Sunday.

However, by requesting U.S. assistance at the height of the fighting, Aquino appears to have undermined her negotiating position at this month’s talks on the future of huge American military bases in the Philippines, diplomats and press commentators said.