Marcos Says He’s Ready to Help Aquino

MANILA —  Deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos denied Saturday that he used public funds to amass private properties and said he will support his successor, Corazon Aquino, if she keeps “leftist subversives” at bay.

In an extraordinary hourlong radio interview broadcast here, Marcos, 68, declared from his exile home in Hawaii, “I am ready to help even my opponent (Aquino) as long as she does not allow the leftist terrorist subversives to take over our country.

” . . . Don’t worry about my plans,” he said. “I have no intention of starting a civil war.”

Rafael Yabut, a commentator on a Manila radio station, also spoke with Marcos’ wife, Imelda, who rejected evidence of personal extravagance, her voice broken with sobs.

Request of Soldiers

Marcos, who fled the country Feb. 25, said, “To our soldiers I ask: See that our armed forces of the Philippines are united.”

He specifically called on the military to support Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the armed forces chief of staff, who led the mutiny that triggered his ouster.

“Also help Madame Cory Aquino, whatever our quarrels,” he said. “Help everbody.” He added that Filipinos must work together “so that these leftist terrorist insurgents do not take over.”

Not entirely contrite, Marcos warned against those he said were using “black propaganda” against his wife and himself, particularly those who were his associates during his 20-year rule here.

‘Not Be Too Cruel’

“Let them not be too cruel, too arrogant, because I may be forced to reveal all the documents I have,” he said, without identifying by name those he had in mind. Do not “humiliate me through lies,” he warned.

Several men with whom he reportedly had business dealings over the years have turned over incriminating documents to a presidential commission investigating charges that Marcos used government funds to enrich his family.

“Whatever my sins are against our country and our God, stealing money from our government and our people are not among them,” he insisted.

Government investigators have accused members of the Marcos family of using a variety of schemes to loot the national treasury and invest the proceeds in high living and property here and abroad. Jovito Salonga, head of the presidential Commission on Good Government, has put the figure of so-called ill-gotten wealth as high as $10 billion.

On his return from a fact-finding trip to the United States last week, Salonga described Marcos’ actions as “the unprecedented plunder of a nation.” His commission is seeking the return of the assets through court action here, in the United States and in Europe.

Marcos, whose annual presidential salary was about $5,000, admitted that he had bought land in Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines but said he used borrowed funds and the savings from his pre-presidential law practice.

“They insist this money we used to buy property here (in the Philippines) was all stolen from our government,” he said. “They don’t know a lot of that is from loans from the bank.”

Most of the alleged Marcos holdings here were nominally owned by what the government charges are front corporations, in reality owned by the Marcos family. A longtime Marcos associate, Jose Y. Campos, admitted in documents recently obtained by The Times that a number of properties he purchased in Manila were in fact owned by the former president and his family.

Marcos again denied that he owns real estate abroad, as charged by the Commission on Good Government. Of the businesses described as fronts for his holdings, Marcos asked: “Who borrowed (to buy the real estate)? Not us but those who own these properties. So why are we now being involved?”

Questioned About Shoes

Imelda Marcos, questioned by the radio interviewer about her now-famous 3,000 pairs of shoes found in Malacanang Palace, seemed particularly upset.

“You know the shoes; count them one by one. I don’t believe there are 3,000 (pairs),” she said. “I don’t throw anything away, even old slippers. Those are shoes added up over almost 21 years. I am not extravagant.

“What happened was so cruel,” she sobbed, speaking as her husband did in native Tagalog. “People think we have hidden wealth. We just depend on the Filipino community here (in Hawaii) for our day-to-day needs. . . . If we had hidden wealth, we would not be doing this because it’s so shameful.”

A large amount of valuables, jewels and cash, was seized by U.S. Customs when Marcos and his retinue arrived in Hawaii.

“If we are needed,” Imelda Marcos said, she and her husband will return to the Philippines. “But we will not go back if it will cause trouble. We would rather die in hardship here than cause trouble in the Philippines.”