Bush Aide Sees Aquino, Seeks Moves to Block New Coup Attempt : Philippines: She’s ‘very confident,’ U.S. emissary reports. He will meet defense chief today.

An adviser to President Bush met Thursday with Philippine President Corazon Aquino to express support for her fragile government and concern that she act decisively to forestall another attempted coup.

Robert M. Gates, who is Bush’s deputy national security adviser, met with Aquino for 90 minutes. He will meet today with her secretary of defense, Fidel V. Ramos, before returning to Washington.

“President Bush asked me to come here to express his personal support for democracy and the constitutional process in the Philippines,” Gates told reporters after the meeting with Aquino. He said Bush wanted a firsthand report of how Aquino was dealing with continuing instability.

“Among other things,” he said, “I would tell him that she is very confident.”

A U.S. official here said Gates also expressed Bush’s “concern for decisive action to get things back on track.” He said, “We think there’s a real basic need to move ahead with the problems of the country.”

The official denied widespread speculation that Gates pressured Aquino to call a snap election in advance of the presidential election scheduled for 1992.

“He is not making specific suggestions,” the official said. “Improved performance is the key--and then to listen to what she had to say.”

Gates’ surprise mission came after Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) proposed that U.S. aid to Israel, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and the Philippines, the five largest aid recipients, be reduced in order to make available additional aid to Panama and the countries of Eastern Europe.

Given the increased competition for U.S. aid, the official said, the Philippines must “demonstrate that this is a government that deserves our continuing support.”

Philippine Foreign Secretary Raul Manglapus objected to the proposed cut. “Supporting freedom is not free,” he said.

The United States has pledged to give the Philippines $481 million a year for the use of six military facilities here, including Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. Talks on renewing the leases for these bases, which will expire in September, 1991, are expected to begin this spring.

Congress has refused to appropriate all the aid promised under a 1988 executive agreement on the bases, and this has led to strained relations with the Philippines. In a statement Thursday, Aquino said she would “press, and press very strongly, for the United States to honor its commitments.”

Aquino barely survived a weeklong coup attempt last month, the sixth since she came to power almost four years ago. Since then, she and other government officials have publicly acknowledged that another coup attempt is likely.

At the time of last month’s attempted coup, Gates, a former deputy director of the CIA, played a key role in monitoring developments and planning the U.S. response.

On Dec. 1, the first day of the coup, Bush authorized U.S. pilots to fly F-4 fighter-bombers over rebel-held airfields to pin rebel aircraft to the ground. The U.S. action helped save Aquino’s government when it appeared likely to fall.

Since then, U.S. officials have been frustrated by developments here. Most of the top rebel leaders and more than 1,000 of the mutinous troops remain at large. One official said last week that the Aquino Cabinet, reorganized Dec. 31, was only “marginally better.”

“She’s feckless,” this official said. “She can’t, or won’t, lead. She has no follow-through. The question is, can she muddle through?”

The most positive sign, officials said, is an aggressive campaign by the reorganized National Bureau of Investigation to file criminal charges against prominent businessmen, former government aides and politicians who allegedly gave financial support to the coup leaders.