Rebels Sought to Kill Her, Aquino Charges : Angry President Opens Blistering Propaganda Attack on Leaders of Failed Philippine Coup

By MARK FINEMAN

Aug. 31, 1987 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

MANILA — President Corazon Aquino unleashed a blistering propaganda offensive Sunday to further discredit the renegade leaders of Friday’s failed military coup against her government, condemning them as “treacherous and cowardly” liars who “mercilessly slaughtered” civilians and staged their mutiny mainly to assassinate her and her entire family.

“The aim of the rebels was clearly to kill the president and her family,” Aquino charged in an angry speech delivered beside the Tomb of the Unknown Philippines Soldier during solemn National Hero’s Day rites on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Praise for Ramos

The 54-year-old president dared the rebel leaders and their remaining troops--hundreds of whom continued to evade a manhunt--to try again.

Reiterating her high praise and confidence in Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the armed forces chief of staff, Aquino reminded her listeners that she and Ramos “have crushed every threat to this government and our democracy.” She was referring to five previous unsuccessful armed attempts to overthrow her 18-month-old government as well as to Friday’s failed coup that left at least 42 dead and 275 injured.

“Last Friday taught them their most bitter lesson. And we shall do it again if they want.”

Nevertheless, Aquino was surrounded during all of her public appearances Sunday by the largest personal security force ever seen around a Philippines president.

A 13-vehicle motorcade of presidential guards armed with automatic weapons escorted her to the site of the tomb, in the heart of army headquarters in Manila’s Ft. Bonifacio. The public was not allowed to attend.

Many Cabinet members and foreign diplomats present winced or ducked when an army ceremonial team fired a 21-gun salute, and all eyes watched as an air force helicopter flew low over the proceedings. The helicopter’s door opened, and the crew inside dropped thousands of yellow flower petals on the ceremony, then tipped the rotor blades in memory of the nation’s newest fallen heroes.

The security force then accompanied the president to a suburban Manila military hospital, where she pinned medals for bravery on soldiers wounded in the fight to protect her government. Aquino, flanked by Ramos and Defense Secretary Rafael Ileto, leaned over one wounded corporal, lightly touched his bandaged arm and said in Tagalog, “Thank you very much for all you have done.”

The ceremony at Ft. Bonifacio was an indication, local political analysts said, of how the failed coup eventually may have helped bring Aquino closer to her armed forces--if only because loyal troops saved her life and those of her family.

Troop Reinforcement

Meanwhile, troops remained on alert nationwide, and a second battalion of Philippine marines and artillery were flown to Manila from the southern island of Mindanao to guard against any renewed assault by rebels still at large.

During a ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo welcoming the new marine battalion, Ramos assailed the coup leaders, including Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan, a charismatic combat veteran who was one of the key planners and leaders of the February, 1986, uprising that toppled then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos and brought Aquino to power.

Standing on the parade ground 100 yards from the burned-out general headquarters building of the armed forces, Ramos described for the marines how rebel troops started the fire in an effort to drive out 116 loyalist officers and men who had held the rebels at bay for hours with a few dozen M-16 rifles.

‘Turned Tail’

“But instead it was the rebel forces . . . that turned tail and ran away and started surrendering by the hundreds,” Ramos told the men before hosting a victory lunch for the marine officers.

He repeated his earlier report that 705 mutineers are now in custody.

Aquino and her aides have demanded severe punishment for the rebels, something that was not done after previous coup attempts. Presidential adviser Teodoro Locsin Jr. and House Speaker Ramon Mitra have said publicly and privately that they would prefer to see Honasan and his fellow coup leaders killed rather than captured alive.

Ramos, however, has hedged on the issue of punishment, saying it will be left up to the military courts. Some of the mutineers were deceived by Honasan into taking part, Ramos said.

‘A Fair Hearing’

Defense Secretary Ileto told The Times on Sunday that captured and surrendering rebels “will be given justice--a fair hearing.”

“The ideas that they have espoused are the same as those of the administration,” Ileto said. “They just want a short cut.”

Other military and civilian leaders agreed that the government must now quickly begin to redress grievances raised by the coup leaders, among them the poor quality of life for the military and the low pay of the soldiers, who get an average of $75 a month to fight an estimated 23,000 Communist insurgents in jungles throughout the country.

A newly elected congresswoman, Lorna Yap, a close personal friend and confidante of Aquino, said she will lead the fight in the House of Representatives to increase the military budget substantially and approve a 10% across-the-board salary and benefits increase for all officers and enlisted men.

However, Yap also said that she and Speaker Mitra plan to launch congressional investigations into the possible involvement of Juan Ponce Enrile, the former defense minister, in Friday’s mutiny.

Enrile has been an outspoken Aquino critic since she fired him last Nov. 23 amid rumors that Honasan, Enrile’s chief of security at the time, was plotting a coup against her.

On Sunday, Enrile, now an elected member of the Senate, emphatically denied any role in the coup attempt.

1st Public Statement

Enrile, 63, made his first public statement on the mutiny in an interview with a Manila radio station, saying that he had deliberately kept quiet because “had I spoken, I would have been accused of fueling the coup.”

Enrile was the top leader of the 1986 coup against Marcos, rising against the discredited former president after serving in his Cabinet for 16 years.

Recalling that he had been accused by Aquino’s supporters of involvement in all five earlier attempted coups, Enrile said, “Perhaps they will continue blaming me for things that happen in the Philippines even when I am in the grave.”

Enrile then asserted that the American Embassy in Manila had intervened directly on Aquino’s behalf at the height of the uprising. He said that Philip Kaplan, former deputy chief of the U.S. mission here, telephoned him Friday, asking him to personally contact Honasan and tell him to end the mutiny.

Enrile said he refused Kaplan’s request because he does not take orders from foreign diplomats and, he said, because he has had no contact with his former security chief.

U.S. Highly Concerned

The telephone call, however, highlighted details that emerged Sunday indicating that the Reagan Administration was far more concerned that the coup might succeed than was initially apparent from President Reagan’s official public statements.

Senior foreign and domestic military sources here have said since Friday that the vast majority of the armed forces refused to get behind either Aquino or the rebels until after 3:30 p.m. Friday, 14 hours after the mutiny began, when they began to line up on the side of Aquino.

In addition, it was clear from interviews with eyewitnesses and senior Philippine military officers that Honasan’s uprising had been well-planned and well-executed. Several military analysts concluded that it failed primarily because Honasan did not take full propaganda advantage of the seized television stations.

Contradicting Aquino’s statement on Sunday that the attack on the Malacanang Palace, site of the presidential offices and residence, was meant to kill her and her family, many eyewitnesses said the Malacanang attackers consisted of just six rebels.

“There were no more than a half-dozen of them, and it didn’t seem like they wanted to take over anything,” said the security guard on duty that night at the adjacent St. Jude Church. “They just wanted to kill people and make a lot of noise. They split up, spread out and kept shooting and shooting. They shot everything that moved.”

Aquino’s only son, Benigno S. Aquino III, was wounded in the raid on the palace.

Diversionary Raids

Military analysts said the attack on Malacanang and a later raid on the government’s broadcasting complex were diversionary actions, meant to distract attention from key military bases, which were the main targets.

While Malacanang and Channel 4 were under attack, Honasan’s main force of rebels drove into Camp Aguinaldo and walked unchallenged into the broadcast facility housing Channels 9 and 13.

Honasan’s strategy then, according to the analysts, was to hole up and wait, hoping the majority of key regional commanders and line officers would defect to his side, as they had done during last year’s revolt against Marcos.

“What Gringo failed to do, though, was effective ‘psy-war,’ ” one analyst said. “All he had to do is get on the air himself and start broadcasting that he had taken over the whole country, repeating over and over how badly the military is being treated under Aquino. Why he didn’t do that, no one knows.”

Honasan’s whereabouts Sunday were still unknown. Several senior officers and politicians voiced concern that the handsome colonel, who gained national fame after the 1986 rebellion, would come to be celebrated as a folk hero by many in the armed forces if he is not caught soon.

Lost All Respect

Yet despite initial support for Honasan’s cause in many military quarters, it appeared Sunday that many loyalists had lost all respect for him when his men began killing loyalist troops.

At one point early in the mutiny, Col. Cesar Nazareno, Manila’s deputy military commander, had said that he “sympathized very much” with the rebel grievances. But Nazareno, who was wounded twice during the fighting, said when asked about Honasan on Sunday: “I want only to finish him off--personally.”