Vote-faking alleged

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 6

Vote-faking alleged

NZPA-Reuter Manila

Campaigning for the Presidential election in the Philippines ended yesterday. The President, Mr Ferdinand Marcos promised to match violence with violence. His opponent is confident of a landslide win. And it was alleged that gangs of political fixers were launching a ballot box fraud.

The Manila financial newspaper "Business Day” reported yesterday that more than three million fake voting slips were being prepared by a 50-strong team of forgers in a university basement. The opposition appealed to the Supreme Court to cancel polling in parts of Cavite province — home of the Prime Minister, Mr Cesar Virata — just south of Manila. It said 513 polling stations serving an electorate of 180,000 had received neither voting slips nor ballot boxes. Mr Marcos’ last push for votes drew an estimated 100,000 people to a Manila park where barely 24 hours earlier, Corazon Aquino, his opponent,

claimed a one million crowd at one of the biggest political rallies seen in the Philippines. The President, speaking as his listeners began drifting away in pouring rain, said, “The opposition claim if they lose there will be civil war. Our Government desires nothing but peace but if the opposition doesn’t listen, we have the strength to fight them.” Mrs Aquino, who accuses Mr Marcos of masterminding the killing of her politician husband, Benigno, at Manila airport, in 1983, has pledged she will lead street demonstrations if she is robbed of victory by fraud. Mr Marcos said he was ready to pit the entire 250,000-strong armed forces against violence and warned that Aquino supporters who stirred up trouble would “all disappear and be arrested”.

He appealed to her, “Stop what you are starting. You have sown the atmosphere of anger, hatred and revolution. If you insist on using vio-

lence then violence it is and I can assure you we can handle anything.” “Business Day” quoted military sources today as saying some members of the Armed Forces were engaged in preparations for election fraud.

A senior military officer said he had seen his men "being used” to fill up voting slips, the newspaper said. “The military has already played a part. They have already filled up election returns,” he was quoted as saying. “Business Day,” widely regarded as the most independent of Manila’s mainly pro-Marcps newspapers, said Intelligence reports reaching the military had showed that 3.5 million “votes” and corresponding returns were being prepared by 50 “golden arms” (forgers) in a basement of the University of Life, at Pasig, in the northern suburbs of Manila.

“Business Day” said one fraud scenario envisaged by military sources was for ballot boxes ferried out by plane from rural areas to be switched dur-

ing the flight with boxes previously stuffed with fake returns. The real votes would be dumped in the sea. “But still I have the feeling that, yes, perhaps we could have been more decisive in eliminating the influences that end up with corruption.”

® Mr Marcos said in a television interview that his Administration may have given favours to friends but he denied widespread corruption in his Government.

“We may have given our friends a few favour here and there and (been) misused by some of our friends. But engage in outright corruption? No Never,” he said in the interview, which was broadcast by the American Christian Broadcasting Network.

“In fact we set up ombudsmen, special courses for officers in Government, within the military. There is no evidence (of corruption) in the United States Congress investigation, no evidence here "in our own legislature investigation,” he said.