Manila Official Denies Plot to Murder Rebel Leaders : Philippines: The foreign secretary rejects U.S. mercenary’s story of payments to kill Aquino foes.

In a bizarre story worthy of a spy thriller, the Philippine foreign secretary Thursday denied allegations that he hired an American mercenary, a minor figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, to assassinate rebel leaders trying to overthrow President Corazon Aquino.

Raul Manglapus, at times visibly shaken, told a crowded news conference that a tape recording in which he allegedly discussed the murder plot was an elaborate hoax. Parts of the audiotape were broadcast Wednesday night in the United States on ABC News.

“That conversation never occurred,” Manglapus said. “I cannot tell whether the tape was created by someone imitating my voice or whether it is the product of sophisticated digital splicing.”

A Filipino opponent of Aquino later released a six-page transcript of the purported recording. He previously had offered to sell the tape to news agencies in Manila, the Associated Press reported.

ABC reported that Manglapus met eight times at his house with Jack Terrell, an American who undertook to recruit, arm and train Contras in the civil war in Nicaragua during the Reagan Administration.

Playing a brief role in clandestine efforts to aid the Contras, Terrell volunteered to train anti-Sandinista guerrillas in 1984. Styling himself “Col. Flaco”--Spanish for “the thin one”--Terrell told Contra leaders that he would organize a force to seize a gold mine in Nicaragua’s northeastern wilderness and loot it of its gold.

But Contra leaders--and then-White House aide Oliver L. North, who was secretly directing their effort--soon decided that Terrell was unreliable and cut him out of their plans, according to documents and testimony before the congressional committee that investigated the affair in 1987.

By 1986, Terrell had turned against his former clients and denounced them in newspaper and television interviews.

Terrell told ABC News that he was “hired by Manglapus” in May, 1990, to “bring in a team of preferably Americans to kill” the leadership and key supporters of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, a group of dissident right-wing soldiers that has tried to overthrow Aquino’s government.

Terrell said he was paid 850,000 pesos, or $30,000, as a down payment to kill fugitive rebel leader Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan and other Aquino opponents. He said he never carried out the murders because “I wasn’t willing to assassinate civilians.” He said he secretly taped Manglapus during one of their meetings.

In the news conference, Manglapus confirmed that he had repeatedly met Terrell, whom he described as “a friend of a friend,” at his house last year. But he denied that they plotted assassinations. “I have not plotted to kill anyone,” he said. “I have not paid money to anyone to undertake murder on my behalf.”

Manglapus said he and Terrell discussed “threats to the (Philippines) from the right and the left. We mentioned names.” In response to a question, he added, “The term killed may have been used in those conversations. So they could splice these things in a tape.”

Manglapus said he discussed the case with Aquino after he returned last week from the United Nations, where his government has promoted him as a candidate for secretary general. “We had a good laugh about it,” he said. “She said there was nothing to worry about.”

Aquino’s spokesman, Horacio Paredes, also dismissed the allegations. “I can’t believe ABC, a supposedly responsible news organization, would buy this fish tale hook, line and sinker,” he said.

Aquino’s chief lawyer, Solicitor General Francisco Chavez, called the allegations “easily dismissable” and out of character for Manglapus. “I think it’s pure hogwash,” he said.

Honasan, the ostensible target, led several failed coups against Aquino, including the December, 1989, uprising that left more than 100 dead. Aquino’s military chief of staff and the Speaker of the House of Representatives have each met repeatedly with the nation’s most-wanted man and his aides in recent weeks, however, to discuss his possible surrender.

Honasan has reportedly told friends he wants amnesty so he can run for the Philippine Senate in elections next May. A charismatic figure here, Honasan has avoided capture since 1988 despite a $185,000 reward.