Marcos seeks veterans’ backing

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 11

Marcos seeks veterans’ backing

NZPA-Reuter Manila President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, commenting on foreign press reports that his World War II military record claims were false, yesterday invited war veterans to answer for him. President Marcos, campaigning in the Manila shanty-town district of Tondo, told a crowd of 40,000: “Our opponents said that Marcos was not a true, guerrilla, that he was not in the thick of the fight. The (war) veterans should answer that accusation.” The “New York Times” reported that United States Army records discovered last year said

that there was no basis for President Marcos’ claims that he was a guerrilla leader during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. President Marcos has emphasised his war record in almost every rally he has held in campaigning for re-election on February 7. The “New York Times” — in the latest antiMarcos report to be published in the United States — said the records showed that between 1945 and 1948 various army officers rejected two Marcos requests for official recognition of his guerrilla unit, known as MGA Maharlika.

It said the officers called his claims distorted, exaggerated, fraudulent, contradictory and absurd. Investigators found “no such unit (Maharlika) ever existed.” President Marcos has 27 World War H medals, making him the Philippines’ most-decorated soldier. An opposition Manila newspaper which questioned his war record in 1982 was closed by the Government and its editor and nine staff were put on trial for subversion. Charges against them were dropped last year. A biography ‘of President Marcos savs when

General Douglas MacArthur gave him the Distinguished Service Cross for valour he said that “without Ferdinand’s exploit, Bataan (near Manila) would have fallen three months sooner than it did. Military historians concede that the heroic stand at Bataan upset the Japanese timetable of conquest ... and thus saved Australia and New Zealand.” The pro-Government Manila press has been reviving President Marcos’ war exploits with front-page campaign reports and photographs of him meeting former veterans.