Word: aquinos
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...When Aquino was told of the shootings, she immediately conferred with General Fidel Ramos, the armed forces Chief of Staff, General Rafael Ileto, the Defense Minister, and other officials. Later that evening she went on television to address the country. Looking drawn, and reading from a prepared text, she expressed her "deep regrets" at "this bloody incident" and promised a full investigation. "In the period before the plebiscite," she said, "attempts to destabilize the government and defeat our democratic aims will intensify. I urge our people to maintain sobriety...
...rash of statements, left-wingers likened the President to Marcos, while rightists denounced her, as they frequently have in the past, as too weak and indecisive to run a government. Said a statement issued by Bayan, the largest leftist coalition: "Bayan points the finger of guilt at the Aquino government. By this act it has been shorn of all past claims of being democratic and antifascist." Juan Ponce Enrile, the ambitious former Defense Minister who was sacked by Aquino after the November coup attempt, also pounced on the President. "It is about time," he declared, "that we remove the masks...
...effort to discover how the tragedy at the Mendiola Bridge could have happened, Aquino appointed Vincente Abad Santos, a retired Supreme Court Justice, to conduct an inquiry. She accepted the offer of General Ramon Montano, the constabulary chief of Manila, to take a leave. Montano admitted that the soldiers "might have overreacted," but "as far as we are concerned, we exercised maximum tolerance. We had to stop them, or they would have been all over Malacanang." That did not explain why tear gas, water cannons and fire hoses had not been used against the crowd before the security forces began...
There were suggestions in Manila newspapers that anti-Communist hard- liners in the military had helped undermine the peace effort. Though Aquino and Defense Minister Ileto favor negotiations, some military officers argue that compromise with the Communists is impossible and that the cease-fire only postpones the inevitable resumption of fighting. A study conducted by army intelligence and released last week concluded that a "cessation of hostilities" was a "practical impossibility" because the revolutionary principles of the rebels are nonnegotiable. Enrile uses that very argument to rally his supporters against Aquino; the officers suspected of involvement in November's coup...
...excitement generated by the Mendiola Bridge clash and the collapse of the truce talks nearly buried allegations of yet another conspiracy against Aquino. Though the President denied that such an effort had been under way, top-ranking military officers handed journalists a document prepared for Major General Rodolfo Canieso, the commanding general of the army, confirming that there had been new plotting. The report said the conspiracy had been hatched by five brigadier generals and a colonel who were "in league" with Marcos supporters and powerful businessmen "disgusted by the security situation." The report provided no explanation...