Aquino Vows to Probe Military Abuses

BAGUIO, Philippines â€”  Declaring that the armed forces must be purged of dishonor, President Corazon Aquino said Saturday that past military abuses will be investigated and that those found guilty will be “dealt with appropriately.â€�

“Only by exposing this wrongdoing can we start the rebuilding,� she told a graduation ceremony of the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio, a resort center in the mountains of northern Luzon.

“This revolution began with a bullet shot by a soldier into the head of my husband,� she said. “A new beginning requires a closing of the old chapter, but the people will not let the page be turned if crimes and human rights abuses lie unexplained.�

Twenty-five soldiers and officers were tried and acquitted in the 1983 assassination of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., but his widow, the new president of the Philippines, has never accepted the verdict. The case epitomized public anger over military abuses under deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

To Reopen Aquino Case

Jose Diokno, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Human Rights, said Friday in Manila that the Aquino assassination case will be reopened. The commission will investigate reported new evidence and review the conduct of the 1985 trial, he said.

Aquino told the class of 174 graduating cadets that a new army “was forged at a moment of national crisis. . . . Our institutions, such as the armed forces, had to decide: Were they for a man or for a people? Were they for a small clique of crooks clinging to power, or for country? . . . You opted to be part of people’s power.�

The ceremony marked Aquino’s first official duty as commander in chief of the armed forces since she came to power almost a month ago.

When her black Mercedes sedan rolled to a stop on the parade ground in front of the reviewing stand, Aquino emerged with a salute to waiting officers. She was, as usual, dressed in yellow, but she wore a smart-looking suit with a short jacket instead of the simple dress that she has favored on other occasions.

With her on the reviewing stand were Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos, whose mutiny against Marcos on Feb. 22 triggered the nearly bloodless revolution that drove him from power.

Her half-hour address touched on the Philippines’ Communist-led insurgency but did not lay out an anticipated detailed offer for a cease-fire and amnesty.

“We came to power through peace and I mean to govern in peace,� she declared. “I wish to persuade those insurgents who went to the hills because of despair, rather than ideology, to return, because now there is hope. . . .

“To our brothers and sisters in the hills and the underground, I have this to say. You waged war against Mr. Marcos because he was the embodiment of the worst injustice, greed and cruelty. I fought Marcos for the same reasons. . . . Now that the evil has fled the land, I shall soon call on you to come out and rejoin your people in rebuilding our country.�

Warns Guerrillas

But with an audience of military and cadet families, she received her biggest hand when she went on to say: “Those who do not will face a reformed and reinvigorated fighting force.�

Guerrilla and army activity declined during the election campaign that ended in early February, but since Marcos fled the country, the rebels have resumed ambushes of military patrols.

There were a few reminders of Marcos during the ceremony.

One was intentional. In slick, color-photo academy fact books given to visitors, the face of a man photographed shaking hands with a graduating cadet at a past ceremony had been covered with blue ink. It was Marcos.

The other reference to the Marcos era was a slip-up. A public address announcer, describing the scene as Aquino trooped the line of cadets said: “President Aquino is accompanied by the chief of staff, Gen. Fabian . . . “

He caught himself in mid-sentence correctly identifying the chief of staff as Ramos, not Fabian C. Ver, who was Marcos’ military boss and fled the country with him.