MANILA TURNS ANTI-U.S. ON CUE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000200940001-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200940001-9
11 February 1986
Manila Turns Anti-U.S. on Cue
Government Suspected of Bringing in Demonstrators
By John Burgess
Washington Po,t Foreign Service
a Critical st.i,ge last fall, the j)r') ):ern171t'nt
press gave prominent play to Marcos' wife
Imelda being honored during a tour of the
Soviet Union.
Pressure from Washington is increasing
again over Marcos' conduct of the presiden-
tial election. President Reagan has said he
would consider a substantial increase in aid
if the elections were fair and credible to the
Filipino people. But Lugar said the group
had found "disturbing reports" of electoral
abuse and would report about them to Rea-
gan Tuesday. And once again, publicly ex-
pressed sentiments against Americans here
are on the rise.
When newspapers reported that two U.S.
aircraft carriers had called at Subic Bay Na-
val Base, columnists quickly fired off
charges of gunboat diplomacy and efforts to
influence the election. U.S. officials said the
vessels' presence was routine.
Marcos' political affairs minister,
Leonardo Perez, last month called U.S. Am-
bassador Stephen Bosworth a "self-annoin-
ted American praetorian guard of democ-
racy in the Philippines." He urged him to
"shed his mantle of hypocrisy and be man
enough to mount the campaign stage" with
opposition candidates.
Ruling party spokesman J.V. Cruz, for-
merly Marcos' ambassador to Britain, often
leads the criticism. Lately, he has attacked
the U.S. endorsement of the citizen poll-
watching group known as Namfrel, which
Marcos has accused of distorting election
returns to favor Corazon Aquino.
Last week, Cruz said U.S. support had
"finally and conclusively" revealed "the unm-
bilical cord that has always tied Namfrel to
colonialist elements in the United States."
Progovernment columnist Teodoro Va-
lencia can be counted on to take a swing at
Americans almost every time he writes.
Marcos generally keeps above the fray.
He talks often of a need to maintain cordial
relations but says he would bow to the in-
evitable should the Americans break off.
"What can we do do?" he asked last week.
"We have to reach a modus vivendi with
other powers in the region."
MANILA, Feb. 10-When a team of
American election observers led by Sen.
Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) left a hotel here
this morning en route to the airport for a
flight home, about 50 demonstrators were
waiting at the gate.
The Americans, who had just issued a
statement condemning fraud in Friday's
Philippine presidential election, passed
through in cars without incident. The pro-
testers waved placards reading "Down with
U.S. Imperialism!" and "Sen. Lugar. CIA
Terrorist," then burned a U.S. flag and
c ant slogans against imperialism.
Despite the leftist appearance of the de-
monstration, there was speculation that the
group was brought to the government-
owned Manila Hotel by a wing of President
Ferdinand Marcos' ruling New Society
Movement. Men in charge of the group
tried to block contact between reporters
and demonstrators. But one woman said
they were from Marcos' party.
The reception Americans enjoy in the
Philippines, a U.S. colony until 1946, is
about as warm as they find anywhere in the
world. But at times of tension between the
Iwo governments, the cork comes off the
bottle of anti-Americanism. Some of it is
resentment by citizens of a smaller country
against its former lord. But much seems to
be generated by the government to give a
reminder that it has options other than the
close alliance with the United States.
Few analysts expect that Marcos, now in
his 21st year in power, would ever make
the break. Still, his government never stops
talking of it, especially when the question of
U.S. military bases here comes under re-
view and Manila seeks to raise their rent.
Under an agreement in 1983 for the use
of the Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air
Base, the United States is committed to
seek $900 million in aid over five years be-
ginning in fiscal 1985. In the current fiscal
year, Congress approved $184 million, of
which $54 million is in military aid.
When relations with Washington reached
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000200940001-9