The Philippines Digging for Treasure

Monday, Mar. 17, 1986 By SUSAN TIFFT
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Aquino's strategy in dealing with the Communists is to court the 16,000 to 20,000 rebels with offers of a six-month cease-fire and amnesty if they disarm. At least one regional N.P.A. command scoffed at that, demanding the ouster of Ramos and Enrile before talk of a cease-fire could begin. But the government is apparently considering at least one intriguing sweetener: paying the rebels above-market prices for turning in their guns. Under the plan, a guerrilla might receive, say, $1,750 for an automatic rifle worth $1,500 on the open market. He would also be offered a place in an employment-training program. Those who finished the course would be guaranteed jobs on a government-owned farm, where they would be given a salary and a lease on a small plot of land. "We wouldn't just offer them a cease-fire," says an Aquino aide. "We would offer them a business deal." If last week's actions are any indication, that may not be sufficiently enticing. N.P.A. units, which had been relatively quiet during the presidential campaign, were back on the offensive. Fifteen policemen were killed in a rebel ambush in Albay province.

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Aquino may find the rebels more tractable than politicians in Manila. Last week members of Marcos' New Society Movement were angry because the new Minister of Local Government, Aquilino Pimentel, indicated that Aquino might name many of her own people to provincial and municipal slots and postpone local elections expected in May. The new President ran into less opposition when she attempted to recast the Marcos-dominated judiciary. By week's end she had secured resignations from ten of the twelve members of the Supreme Court and from 37 of 38 judges on the appellate court.

One major piece of judicial business facing the President will be a new inquiry into the murder of her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., who was killed as he stepped off a plane at Manila International Airport in 1983. Apparently emboldened by Marcos' departure, Manuel Herrera, a prosecutor in the ombudsman's office of the graft and corruption court, came forward last week with fresh details about the case. General Fabian Ver, Marcos' Chief of Staff, and 25 other defendants were charged with conspiracy in the assassination. Herrera recalled a meeting with Marcos before the trial began in which the former President asked prosecutors to limit their indictments and suggested how facts might be suppressed. Throughout the discussion, Herrera said, Marcos subtly badgered him to bring reduced charges against some of the defendants, which he later did. At the end of the meeting, Herrera maintained, "Marcos stood up, looked straight in my face and said, 'I am a grateful man. I know how to reciprocate.' " Some witnesses at the Ver trial have indicated that they might wish to change their testimony, and Aquino is expected to reopen the case.