Prelate Assails Aquino; City Fears Rebel Attack

Hundreds of troops were rushed to a major southern city amid reports today that rebel soldiers plan new attacks against President Corazon Aquino.

Also today, the nation’s leading cleric delivered an unusually strong attack on inefficiency and nepotism in the Aquino government, which has been deeply shaken by the failed coup that was launched Dec. 1.

In Davao, 560 miles south of Manila, Brig. Gen. Mariano Baccay said 500 Marines were flown to the city early today from Zamboanga to secure the airport, banks and other key installations following reports of rebel troop movements.

Baccay told reporters that an unknown number of rebels had left their garrison, about 150 miles north of Davao, but it was uncertain where they were heading. Roadblocks had been set up near Davao, the largest city on Mindanao island.

In Manila, Cardinal Jaime L. Sin, Roman Catholic archbishop of Manila, called for stern punishment for mutineers but criticized the Aquino administration for its stewardship of the nation.

“The perpetrators of the coup must definitely be hunted down and punished,” Sin told a conference of Filipino ambassadors. “But beyond that, the presidency must be freed of every taint of nepotism. The fruits of economic recovery must be distributed more equitably.”

Sin has been among Aquino’s most outspoken supporters since the 1986 “people power” uprising, when he called hundreds of thousands into the streets to join the revolution that toppled the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos and put Aquino in power.

During the speech, Sin said the country appeared quiet for the moment “like the silence in the eye of a typhoon.”

“Unsettling is the actual inefficiency in many branches of government,” Sin said.