Filipinos Help President Mark Slaying Anniversary : Thousands Turn Out for Aquino Rites

MANILA — Helicopter gunships dropped bales of yellow confetti on a downtown park Thursday as foreign diplomats and dignitaries, including the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., joined tens of thousands of Filipinos in helping President Corazon Aquino commemorate the third anniversary of her husband’s assassination.

It was the public’s first opportunity to openly mark an anniversary of the Aug. 21, 1983, death of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., now venerated as a martyr. The chief political rival of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, now in exile in Hawaii, Benigno Aquino was assassinated while returning from exile in the United States.

The daylong ceremonies were marred Thursday night when power for most of Luzon Island suddenly went dead during a dinner dance in honor of President Aquino just as a 14-piece band was in the middle of “Moonlight Serenade.” The function was entitled “Memories.”

The military chief of staff, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, attending the dinner party along with the president and most of her Cabinet, family and friends, told the packed ballroom at the Manila Hotel that the blackout was caused by “a technical malfunction in the Luzon power grid.”

But most of the celebrants, who recalled that the last time such an extensive power outage occurred was the day after Benigno Aquino’s killing, suspected sabotage by opponents of the Aquino government.

Most Filipinos believe Aquino’s husband was killed by government soldiers as he returned to challenge Marcos’ 20-year rule. The assassination set off a mass protest movement that ultimately forced Marcos from power.

“He showed the whole world what bravery means, what love of freedom means, what it means to walk with God,” Aquino said of her late husband to more than 50,000 chanting supporters at Rizal Park on the shore of Manila Bay.

‘One Seed Fallen . . . ‘

Hours earlier, Aquino, flanked by Coretta Scott King, snipped a yellow ribbon--the color of her three-year protest campaign against Marcos--to dedicate a brass plaque marking the precise spot on the Manila International Airport tarmac where her husband fell.

“One man sprawled on the tarmac,” Aquino said in a prepared speech, “one seed fallen on the ground and watered with blood. This one man threw down his life and brought us home a harvest of freedom.”

For Aquino, it was also a day of congratulations and recognition for her leadership of the political coalition that took power through a mainly bloodless revolt Feb. 25, when Marcos fled a besieged presidential palace.

Comparing Benigno Aquino to Jesus, to Mohandas K. Gandhi and to her own assassinated husband, Coretta Scott King told Aquino in a speech at the tarmac ceremony, “You have shown the world love is the most powerful force in the universe.”

King, whose husband was assassinated in 1968, congratulated President Aquino on her “moral leadership” at a time when her government is struggling to unify the forces of the political left and right in the Philippines.

At the rally downtown, it was clear that the radical left had the upper hand. Signs and banners were largely red, and some were highly critical of Aquino’s administration. Referring to her recent move to liberalize imports, one red banner declared, “Liberal Imports Mean Low Wages, High Prices and Unemployment.”

Still, the crowd greeted Aquino with thunderous applause when she spoke, and even the military guards and uniformed riot troops standing by chanted, “Cory! Cory! Cory!” when she approached the microphone.

The only disappointment of the day, most of which was organized and financed by a group of U.S.-based Aquino supporters called the Ninoy Aquino Movement, came during the plaque dedication at the airport.

A nine-foot, 1,400-pound granite slab inscribed with the outline of the slain leader’s body remained inside an airport warehouse. Organizers said they decided not to put the slab on the tarmac, where mechanics and baggage handlers could accidentally trample on it and “possibly injure the religious sentiments of the (Aquino) family,” according to one of the sculptors.

Instead, the government plans to install the slab at a 45-degree angle in front of the airport, where it can be seen by passengers.