Word: honasan
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...that would raise military salaries by 60%. Aquino also tried an old ploy: reaching for the halo of political sainthood. Playing on the meaning of corazon, she called herself the "heart of the republic" and said the rebels' aim "was clearly to kill the President and her family." Of Honasan's goals, she said, "Let not idealism be used to cover the darkest crimes and ambitions of men whose actions only show their hatred of democracy and their contempt for the lives of others...
Indeed, the rebels lacked so much as a whiff of support from the Roman Catholic Church and the business community, without which no junta could hope to undermine Aquino's immense popularity. But while the charges against the government were an obvious smokescreen for Honasan's ambitions, they served again to remind many Filipinos of Aquino's shortcomings. The rebels, admits Haydee Yorac, a member of Aquino's commission on elections, "are riding on legitimate issues that should be addressed...
...four previous uprisings against her have generally been let off lightly, but U.S. officials are counseling firmness this time. "Heads have to roll," says a Pentagon official. Already the President may be wavering. The government even seemed to be backing off from its earlier order to shoot Honasan on sight. And though she had earlier said the time for reconciliation had passed, last week Aquino almost seemed to be providing alibis for many of her prisoners. "When we interviewed the captives," Aquino said on television, "we found that the enlisted men had been told that they were on a test...
With military helicopters unsuccessfully fanning through the countryside for a sign of him, Honasan proved that even in hiding he can send jitters through Manila. The city's booming stock exchanges opened for the first time since the coup attempt and fell sharply. Hearing rumors of new revolts and troop movements, Congress nervously adjourned. Officials fear that Honasan may continue to discomfort the government simply by leaking wild tales to the city's circulation-mad newspapers. Late last week Honasan released a taped message calling the mutiny's toll "regrettable and inexcusable" but claiming that the rebels had pulled their...
Elsewhere, Honasan's rebellion made itself felt in more tangible ways. In the northern city of Baguio, 600 cadets at the Philippine Military Academy staged a three-day hunger strike in sympathy with Honasan. The N.P.A., declaring its intention to take advantage of the confusion caused by Honasan's revolt, killed 27 police and soldiers in an ambush in two provinces. Though Aquino has called Honasan a coward for abandoning hundreds of his men, his image as a dashing, reform-minded renegade could establish him as a folk hero to rival the President. "That young man should be shot," says...