Philippine Election Is a Muddy Puzzle : Politics: None of the top four presidential candidates seem to have an edge in May 11 vote.

Eleven days before voters go to the polls, the Philippine presidential campaign remains remarkably muddied, with four of the seven candidates locked in a tight race marked by bitter name-calling, wild intrigues and strong partisanship by a key Catholic leader.

None of the four candidates--businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., House Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, former Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos and former judge Miriam Defensor Santiago--has a clear lead to succeed President Corazon Aquino, who is not running.

The best-known candidate, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, trails all polls and is given little or no chance of winning. She has repeatedly denied reports that she will quit the race and throw her support to Cojuangco, a close political ally and business associate of her late husband, Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Public opinion polls and interviews with voters show a volatile electorate, split between a longing for a strongman ruler to kick-start the stagnant economy and a potentially weaker leader committed to preserving the 6-year-old democracy. But most important is widespread antipathy toward traditional politics and its association with greed, graft and corruption.

“I think what is building is a protest vote . . . by people who are fed up with the system and fed up with traditional politicians,” said Felipe Miranda, a political scientist at the Social Weather Stations, Manila’s most respected independent polling group.

According to the group’s most recent poll of 1,200 likely voters, taken from March 26 to April 10, Ramos and Santiago were virtually tied, with Cojuangco gaining. Mitra, the only career politician in the group, was far behind despite his much-vaunted political machinery.

But no one can predict how the days of frenzied campaigning will end. Coup rumors have swept Manila, prompting military alerts, and few were reassured when the seven presidential candidates briefly stopped bickering Sunday to sign a pact pledging not to cheat or use violence. The campaign death toll now stands at 21.

Cardinal Jaime Sin, Manila’s archbishop and the most influential prelate in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation, has injected the latest controversy in the race. In an Easter pastoral letter, Sin said voters on May 11 should reject candidates “who oppressed and plundered the people or who were the accomplices of the oppressors and looters” in Marcos’ martial law regime.

The letter, read in Manila area churches, was primarily aimed at Cojuangco. To remove any doubts, parish priests attending Sin’s Mass were given hundreds of pamphlets to distribute detailing Cojuangco’s alleged ill-gotten wealth under Marcos, ranging from control of 244 companies to ownership of about 200 aircraft and motor vehicles. Cojuangco, who campaigns as a businessman who can lead the country to prosperity, has denied any wrongdoing.

Sin struck again last Saturday. He delivered a homily urging candidates who collaborated in Marcos’ 1972-1981 martial-law regime to “forsake the ambition to govern the country they so deeply wronged.” Repentance, he said “is unacceptable if no reparation has been given for the deaths, the injuries and the brokenness inflicted on others in the past.”

Though Sin named no names, his target this time was Ramos, who was Marcos’ constabulary chief during martial law. But Ramos helped lead the civilian-backed military coup that toppled Marcos in 1986, and Aquino credits him with supporting her through seven subsequent coup attempts. She has endorsed him as her successor.

At a news conference, Ramos, a Protestant, complained that the cardinal is “going too far” and said he fought to “lighten the harshness of the dictatorship” during martial law. An Aquino spokesman and other religious leaders criticized Sin for preaching politics. But analysts said the attacks have hurt Ramos’ campaign, and may convince wavering voters to shift to Mitra in an attempt to stop a Cojuangco victory.

Mitra, the House Speaker, heads the Fight of the Democratic Filipinos. It is the only party to field candidates for each of the more than 17,000 local and provincial posts also at stake on election day.