President Corazon Aquino on Tuesday led thousands of marchers to the Senate to try to save a new U.S. lease on Subic Bay naval base that lawmakers have all but rejected. A bomb outside the Senate injured five people.
Opponents said Aquino failed to persuade them to approve the agreement, under which the United States would abandon volcano-damaged Clark Air Base next year but keep the Subic Bay naval base.Aquino, dressed in a yellow raincoat, marched through a thunderstorm after declaring at a rally that the people support the U.S. presence. "Let us shout `Yes!' to the treaty," she said.
After the brief procession, Aquino entered the Senate building for a private meeting with lawmakers, many of whom say the $203 million Washington has agreed to pay each year of the 10-year lease agreement is not enough.
Opposition Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, a former defense minister and bases opponent, called the rally and march "a futile exercise." The Senate was to resume deliberations on Wednesday.
A small bomb exploded in front of the Senate building while Aquino was inside, and police said four men and a woman were injured. The device was concealed inside the bed of a delivery truck, police said.
Police estimated the rally crowd at about 100,000, far less than the half million to 1 million the government had expected.
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U.S. seeks alternative site
The Bush administration is talking with several East Asian countries about an expanded American military presence if U.S. forces have to leave the Philippines, senior officials say.
The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the United States has been in contact with non-Philippine members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, as well as Australia, Souoth Korea and Japan.
Beside the Philippines, ASEAN is made up of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. It was not clear whether the United States has been in touch with all five.