Philippine President Corazon Aquino said Monday she had asked Congress for power to search homes and offices for weapons, while Senate committees warned army rebels might launch another coup attempt against her.
As a proposed law granting Aquino broad emergency powers was being finalized, opposition leaders accused her of seeking "Draconian powers" reminiscent of the one-man rule of deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos.Aquino asked for the extra powers to deal with mutineers and rebuild a shattered economy after quelling the sixth and bloodiest coup attempt against her.
"This is not martial law," Aquino told reporters. "What I would like . . . is to be able to (have) additional powers, specially in the matter of being able to search residences or offices so that we can locate all these firearms and ammunition."
Aquino also told reporters that December talks between Manila and Washington on the future of U.S. bases in the Philippines had been postponed for one or two months because of last week's failed army rebellion.
She denied having compromised her government's bargaining position by accepting U.S. military help after the coup attempt began Dec. 1. Her defense secretary, Fidel Ramos, told reporters the U.S. assistance would probably improve the talks.
"In my view, the forthcoming exploratory talks between the two governments would be affected in a positive way by the giving of assistance. Nobody went out of bounds," Ramos said.
Some U.S. officials have said the "air combat patrol" flown by U.S. F-4 fighters over Manila at the height of the coup attempt might make the bases talks less acrimonious than interim negotiations held in 1988.
At Aquino's request, the U.S. Air Force jets patrolled the skies over Manila shortly after planes flown by rebel soldiers bombarded her Malacanang presidential palace and loyal Philippine troop positions.
The F-4s from nearby Clark air base did not engage in combat but turned the battle by clearing the air of rebel aircraft and allowing Philippine pilots to destroy enemy-held planes at Sangley naval station south of Manila. Clark and the Subic Bay naval base are the largest U.S. military installations overseas.
Former Secretary of State George Shultz meanwhile said the coup attempt may have galvanized popular support for Aquino.
Shultz, in Manila on a business trip, told reporters: "I have a feeling that this effort by a renegade group in the military to overturn a democratic government has had a kind of reverse effect from (that expected).
"It seems to be galvanizing the people and leading people to say `We have struggled hard to get a free and democratic system, to see our economy start growing and investments start to come . . . and it's precious and so we have to fight for it and support it'."
Philippine Senate committees on defense and constitutional amendments recommended granting the emergency powers, saying the threat of a new revolt was still alive.