Aquino Bars Marcos’ Body Until After Election

Amid growing tension here and new fears of another coup attempt, Philippine President Corazon Aquino on Thursday barred the planned return and burial of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos’ corpse until after the May 11 nationwide elections.

But Antonio Coronel, lawyer for Marcos’ widow, Imelda Marcos, insisted that the family may still attempt to fly the body back from Hawaii this Sunday and bury it nine days later in Paoay, 250 miles north of Manila. He declined to say how they could evade a government order prohibiting airlines from transporting the corpse.

“It seems to me the government wishes to play God,” Coronel said in a telephone interview. “It is trespassing in the realm of the dead, where even angels fear to tread. . . .”

In a statement announcing the ban, Aquino’s executive secretary, Franklin Drilon, said the government fears that “irresponsible utterances . . . can spark a public disturbance” in the final weeks of the hotly contested campaign. At least 14 people have been killed in election-related violence.

“We cannot risk any further disturbance in public order and safety at this time, when emotions are high as a result of the election campaign,” Drilon said. He said Marcos’ body can be flown back for burial after the election, “when passions have subsided.”

Philippine intelligence officials are tracking reports of unauthorized movements of potentially mutinous troops from the southern island of Mindanao to Manila and an increase in the number of soldiers absent without leave over the last four days. “That’s important,” one official said. “It means they are reporting to someone else.”

Officials fear that a coup attempt may be timed to take advantage of growing public anger over a power crisis that has caused repeated blackouts across much of Luzon, the main island, and Mindanao, the second-largest island. In the first three months of this year, officials said, Luzon was without electricity for 347 hours, the equivalent of nearly 15 days.

Manila has suffered near-daily unannounced blackouts in recent weeks, further damaging the country’s struggling economy. Computers crash without warning, refrigerated food spoils, elevators stall, industrial machinery shuts down and air conditioners stop in the sweltering summer temperatures.

Engineers attribute the crisis to a drought, aging equipment and poor planning. Environmental concerns have delayed building of several proposed power plants.

Aquino, who leaves office June 30, has survived seven planned or attempted coups since the military-backed “people power” revolt of 1986 toppled Marcos’ dictatorial regime and installed her as president. Several of the coup attempts were traced to Marcos and his supporters.

Marcos allegedly looted the Philippines of billions of dollars during his 20-year strongman rule. He died in September, 1989, while in exile in Hawaii, and his embalmed corpse has been kept in an above-ground, air-conditioned crypt near Honolulu.