Envoys: yes and no to Cory
MANILA (UPI) — Growing number of Philippine diplomats joined the rebellion Monday against President Ferdinand Marcos, but others were taking a wait-and-see attitude in the power struggle that has brought the Philippines to the brink of civil war.
One diplomat accused Marcos of running a government of “cheats and no less than assassins” and others said he should step down to avoid plunging the nation into “bloodshed.”
Philippine diplomats in London, Moscow, Madrid, San Francisco, Honolulu and Los Angeles have backed the rebellion against Marcos that broke out Saturday, calling on him to step down and turn over power to Opposition leader Corazon Aquino.
In Washington, an official at the Philippine Embassy who asked not to be identified said, ‘We’re just monitoring events but until anything happens we’re still representatives of our government we’re civil servants.
But the Philippine ambassador in Moscow called Monday on Marcos to resign, saying he had not respected “the will of the people” in the fraud-tainted Feb. 7 election. The Marcos-controlled Parliament declared him the winner, although an independent count showed Aquino the victor.
Ambassador Romeo Fernandez in Moscow, said he would recognize Marcos until his present term as President expired today, unless he resigned sooner. Then Fernandez said he would switch his allegiance to the rival provisional government.
“We will have to go with the will of the people,” he said.
In London, Corazon Belmonte, first secretary in the Philippine embassy’s consular section, told a Roman Catholic mass she and more than half a dozen other Philippine diplomats in Britain did not recognize Marcos.
