The 68-year-old president, however, still retains most of his powers, including the authority to make laws by personal decree. According to United States officials, Laxalt expressed Reagan's ''serious'' concern over the situation in the country, and urged Marcos to undertake urgent reforms. This message was reinforced in late October, when President Reagan sent Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada to meet with President Marcos in Manila. Washington, international lenders and the domestic opposition have all pressed Marcos to allow a revival of democratic institutions and to relax his strong hold on the nation's political and economic life. Since then, the economy has plummeted, law and order have deteriorated and military abuses have continued. at the Manila International Airport, as he returned from three years of self-imposed exile in the United States, seriously undermined the credibility of the Marcos Government and the Philippine military, which has been implicated in the killing.
The August 1983 murder of the opposition leader Benigno S. But that complacency has been replaced by alarm as the Communist rebellion has grown rapidly in the last couple of years, aided immeasurably by political and economic developments that have amplified the appeal of the radical alternative the guerrillas espouse. As recently as two years ago, the New People's Army was generally dismissed by the Philippine Government and foreign analysts alike as nothing more than the latest version of the insurgent groups that, under various banners and ideologies, have come and gone for almost four centuries on this 7,000-island archipelago. Marcos, the enduring strongman of Southeast Asia who has ruled the Philippines for two decades. HE SHOOTOUT AND CHASE IN SOUTHEAST-ern Luzon was but one minor skirmish in the escalating warfare between Communist insurgents and the Government of Ferdinand E.
unit I accompanied, there were no casualties that day. After the early exchanges, amounting to about 200 rounds, there was no more gunfire. There was water, handfuls of rice, and shelter for as long as the fleeing rebels wanted it. When one group of guerrillas came upon the isolated bamboo-and-thatch hut of a local farmer, they found a welcome reception. Guerrilla scouts, equipped with hand-held radios, monitored the movements of the Government troops.Įventually, the rebels found a gap in the military's encircling maneuver and slipped through undetected. The escape traced a circuitous route over jungle terrain and across rivers and streams.
''So they are deaf and blind.'' His claim was put to the test that morning and afternoon, as the detachment of about two dozen rebels played a cat-and-mouse game for the next six hours with the pursuing military. ''But in the local areas, they are foreigners compared to us,'' he said. The guerrillas then broke into two groups and fled into the jungle, with the military in pursuit.Ī couple of days before, a New People's Army officer conceded that the Philippine armed forces had some well trained and proficient fighters, especially the marines and the army scout rangers. The explosions sent the Government troops scurrying for cover. They fired their M-79 grenade launchers as well. Then the rebels, hugging the ground and crouching behind palms, returned the fire in ear-splitting bursts. At one point, the military shot from as close as 150 yards, and bullets creased a tree a few feet away. There were several brief exchanges of fire, with the guerrillas firing bursts from their M-16 assault rifles and then pulling back. The Government troops, apparently marine and army units, were getting closer. Here and there, the young guerrillas - an army without uniforms, wearing sneakers or barefoot - were attending to chores, cleaning weapons, drying laundry and washing in a nearby stream.Īt the sound of gunfire, the piercing, staccato report of automatic rifles, the rebels took up their weapons and supplies, breaking camp hurriedly but without panic. They had finished a half-hour of calisthenics and drills, and the morning meal, wild cabbage stewed in coconut milk, and rice, was cooking. On a jungle ridge dotted with coconut palms, more than 50 members of the New People's Army, the Communist rebels in the Philippines, were getting ready for breakfast at a makeshift camp in Sorsogon Province, some 240 miles southeast of Manila (map, page 42). IT WAS ABOUT 6:30 IN THE MORNING WHEN THE shooting started.
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