REAGAN SENDS LAXALT TO MANILA WITH MESSAGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000303540023-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 11, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: October 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303540023-3
ARTICLE AP!,E6W
ON PIKE
There is no indication, however,
that any spedi#llc demands will be
made or penalties attached if they
are not met.
But one indication of that rising
concern is that although the pres-
ident has written letters to Mr. Mar-
cos before, Mr. Laxalt is the
administration's first presidential
issary specifically sent to talk
ith the Philippine leader.
Earlier reports that William P
lark, a former national security
viser, and another close political
sociate of Mr. Reagan, had gone to
e Philippines on a similar mistion
.branded false by the same
Reagan sends Laxalt to Manila
with message
Ly =R Fontaine
ot TIMES
President Reagan has sent a spe-
ial emissary with a pri-
ate message for Philippine
'resident Ferdinand E. Marcos,
dministration sources have told
e Washington Times.
In so doing, the United States is
tepping up its demonstration of
ncern for the future of the Phil-
ppines, which is experiencing its
nost serious internal unrest since
he end of World War U.
The president's message will
pparently be a frank assessment of
he political trouble Mr. Marcos
inds himself in and what that
plies for United States' interests
the Philippines.
The emissary, Sen. Paul Laxalt, a
evada Republican and a longtime
lose associate of the president, is
oing at the personal request of Mr.
eagan, the same sources said. Mr.
t has performed similar mis-
sions in the past, most notably when
he was sent to Taiwan in April 1984
on the eve of President Reagan's trip
to the People's Republic of China.
The meeting with the Filipino
leader is scheduled for Wednesday
Mr. Laxalt left for Manila from
Andrews Air Force Base early Sat-
urday.
Mr. Laxalt is scheduled to arrive
in the Philippines today after a stop
in Hawaii for talks with the U.S.
Commander in the Pacific, Adm.
James A. Lyons. He returns to Wash-
ington Thursday night.
The trip, which is expected to be
announced today at the White
House, culminates a lengthy period
of assessment within the adminis-
tration over Mr. Marcos' prospects
in an increasingly turbulent Philip-
pines.
The exact content of the
president's message was not
revealed by the sources, but the
meeting is expected to produce a
frank discussion of Mr. Marcos'
political troubles. Such a trip has
been discusses for some time inside
the administration, with some offi-
cials believing such a message is
"overdue" because it is felt the Phil-
ippine president "is screwing things
up:"
;ministration sources.
~iTA Director
Mav.
the president oresided over three
WASHINGTON TIMES
14 October 1985
to ge t a fresh assessment of the
threat posed y the Marxist New
He subseouentl met
with Mr. Marcos to discuss the new
threat estimate, while news reports
at the time said Mr. Casey also urged
thg~Fiiipinr ;resident to hold imme-
diate nresidental elections.
Although administration sources
will not reveal whether any similar
t'equest will be made this time, the
Laxalt !rip evidently is meant to be
a stronger signal of increasing U.S.
worry, and the personal concern of
Mr. Reagan himself. The impor-
tance that the White House attaches
to this visit is also underlined by the
fact that Mr. Laxalt has no other
planned meetings on his four-day
stay in the Philippines.
The timing of the visit, these
sources stressed. was not keyed to
any one recent event, nor is it felt
here that Mr. Marcos' troubles now
are any greater than two months
ago. But the Laxalt visit is a clear
indication that a turning point
been reached in the Philippines, put-
ting at risk huge U.S. interests in that
archipelago.
Those interests have steadily
accumulated since the islands were
wrested from Spanish control at the
end of the last century. Today they
include economic investments of S3
billion and key military facilities,
Clark Air Base and Subic Naval
Base, the principal American naval
base in the Far East. They help pro-
tect vital sea lanes from a growing
Soviet naval presence in the region
staged from bases stretching from
Vladivistok in the Soviet Union in
the north, and Danang and Cam
Ranh Bay in Vietnam to the south.
In congressional testimony ear-
lier this year, the U.S. bases were
described as "essential" by Richard
L Armitage, the Pentagon's assis-
tant secretary of defense for inter-
national security affairs.
The Reagan administration has
also made a major effort to convince
a skeptical Congress that substan-
tially increased military aid is
needed if the Marcos government is
to stem the growing threat posed by
the NPA, which has grown to 12,000
men in the last few years. NPA com-
manders euphorically predict an
army of 60,000 in two more years,
and threaten attacks on metropoli-
tan Manila in the very near future.
Until very recently, the Reagan
administration has shown more con-
cern - at least publicly - about the
NPA threat than Mr. Marcos has
despite the Philippine president's
recent hint that he may request the
assistance of U.S. troops to help end
the NPA insurrection.
Mr. Marcos, 67, who was first
elected president in November 1965,
has stayed in office since then, rul-
ing through martial law from 1972
until 1981. Recently, he has been
besieged by his political opponents
in a campaign that picked up steam
after the murder of opposition
leader Benign Aquino. The opposi-
tion has charged the killing was car-
ried out by the Philippine army upon
Mr. Aquino's return from exile two
years ago.
Despite that opposition, Mr. Mar-
cos has already announced his plans
to run for president in the 1987 elec-
tions, and has also hinted lately of an
earlier, snap election - a possibility
provided under the new constitu-
tion.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/11: CIA-RDP90-00552R000303540023-3