Taped Marcos Plotting Released: ‘Going to Land’ in Philippines,’ He Says

WASHINGTON —  Deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos told an American whom he believed to be an arms dealer that he intended to land in his homeland, take command of tens of thousands of his loyalists and kidnap President Corazon Aquino, according to a transcript released today of the secretly recorded conversation.

“I am going to land there. . . . I don’t care who opposes me . . . and, if they oppose the landing, that’s when we start the battle,” Marcos was quoted as saying in the transcript of excerpts from a 3 1/2-hour tape recording made by Robert Chastain, a Virginia businessman.

Chastain, a communications company executive, told the House foreign affairs subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs that he made the tapes and turned them over to Philippine authorities because “it was wrong to allow President Marcos to proceed on his path to armed invasion as if no one knew what he intended to do.”

Hidden in Briefcase

He said the equipment that recorded the May 21 conversation with Marcos in the former president’s Honolulu home was concealed in a briefcase he was using as a makeshift lap-top desk while talking about arms purchases.

“This is a go-for-broke deal,” Marcos told Chastain, from whom he was seeking $25-million worth of U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, anti-tank weapons, mortars, recoilless rifles, grenade launchers, infantry rifles and enough ammunition for three months of fighting.

Chastain worked on the Marcos “sting” with Richard Hirshfeld, an attorney who had done some work for Marcos but whose chief client is Mohamed al-Fassi, a high-ranking Saudi Arabian.

Hirshfeld and Chastain told the committee that they fooled Marcos into thinking that the Saudi was helping in the arms procurement deal.

Ordered to Stay

The Administration, acting on the tapes, earlier this week ordered Marcos not to leave the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he has lived in exile since being ousted in February, 1986.

In the excerpts, Marcos said that he had been planning the invasion for the end of June, that an officer at a Philippine air base was part of the plot and that Aquino would be taken prisoner.

“What I would like to see happen is we take her hostage,” the transcript quoted Marcos as saying.

In response to Chastain’s query about when the equipment for the invasion would be needed, Marcos replied, “End of June.”

The committee was told today that that date had slipped, and that Marcos was planning to begin his insurrection by the end of this week.

Marcos is known to have some supporters in the Philippine military and some following among the general population. But several past military revolts have fizzled and only a handful of candidates supporting him won in recent congressional elections.

Marcos also said he had “tons” of gold in a cache at a secret location that not even his wife Imelda was told about because “she panics,” according to the transcript. He said his son, Ferdinand Jr., known as “Bong Bong,” could handle retrieval of the gold.