HONOLULU -- Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said he planned to return to his troubled homeland but was banned from leaving by U.S. officials who are treating him 'like a prisoner.'
Philippine Vice President Salvador Laurel said Marcos's return was to have coincided with a three-day coup attempt that was resolved today with the surrender of 250 mutinous soldiers and civilians holding a Manila television station.
'The present plan is I will do everything I can, even at the risk of my life, to return to the Philippines as soon as possible,' Marcos said Wednesday. 'I was planning to leave anytime, tonight, tomorrow evening, tomorrow daytime.'
The day before the failed coup in Manila, Marcos's wife, Imelda, purchased combat boots, olive-drab T-shirts, flight jackets and fur-lined Navy jackets during a $2,000 shopping spree at a store specializing in paramilitary wear.
Doug Boyer, manager of the Military Shop in Waikiki, said Mrs. Marcos and her entourage spent about 30 minutes in the store Sunday selecting clothes in all sizes and paying for them in cash.
Marcos said his wife bought the gear for guards at their Makiki Heights home.
Marcos said he wants to leave the United States, 'especially now that my country is in crisis,' but was told by the officials, 'I will be prevented from boarding any plane that would take me to the Philippines.
'I feel like I am being treated like a prisoner.'
Marcos said a State Department representative and a military official visited him at his Honolulu residence Wednesday night and told him he would be barred from leaving Hawaii.
White House spokesman Larry Speakes said U.S. officials learned Wednesday from the Aquino government that Marcos was planning an unauthorized return to the Philippines and dispatched a State Department officer Wednesday evening 'to review our agreements with him.'
'Mr. Marcos subsequently decided not to return to the Philippines,' Speakes said.
Speakes said Marcos entered the United States 'with the understanding that he could come and go as he pleased' with the proviso that he could only return to his homeland with the consent of the Philippine government.
Reporters saw a car with U.S. government license plates enter and leave the Marcos residence Wednesday night.
Marcos identified the military official as Carl Taylor, foreign political adviser to the commander in chief to the Pacific, who told him not to attempt to leave Hawaii.
Military officials in Hawaii said, 'CINCPAC (headquarters for the commander in chief to the Pacific) is only a conduit for communication passed from the State Department to Mr. Marcos.' As such, the 'communiciations are priviledged,' said a CINCPAC spokeswoman.
Philippines Presidential Press Secretary Teodoro Benigno said Philippine Consul General Tomas Gomez in Honolulu discovered that Marcos planned to board a private jet in Honolulu Wednesday night and alerted the State Department.
'He (Marcos) would have wanted to come home as a re-conquering hero. The plans were completely aborted,' said Benigno, quoting a report from Gomez.
The plane, he said, was leased from Miami-based Pan Aviation by Lebanese arms dealer Shogan Alian, who Benigno said has been indicted in a U.S. court.
Alian is an associate of Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, friend of Mrs. Marcos and a major figure in the controversial U.S. weapons sale scandal to Iran.
At the airport in Laoag, the capital of Marcos' home province of Ilocos Norte, rocks and sand piled high enough to stop arriving planes were seen on the runway.
White House spokesman Don Mathes denied reports that President Reagan has signed an agreement permitting Marcos to return to the Philippines. He said Marcos 'is free to leave Hawaii but if he goes to the Philippines, we assume he has to have the permission of the Philippine government.'
Mathes reinforced U.S. support for President Corazon Aquino.
'We continue to support the Aquino government,' he said.
Gomez he had asked his staff to 'watch what was going on' at the airport but said he doubted Marcos could ever return to the Philippines.
'He cannot leave. He is too weak and too demoralized to leave,' Gomez said, adding Marcos is a 'prisoner of reality' rather than of the United States because the Philippine people do not want him back.
Philippine government spokesman Teodoro Benigno in Manila said the plane at the Honolulu airport had been in a hangar for three days.
Marcos ruled the Philippines for two decades until Feb. 25 when he was forced into exile by a 'people's revolution' led by two top military officials and Aquino, his opponent in a fraud-tainted election. Marcos, his family and close associates were taken by U.S Air Force helicopter from the presidential palace to Clark Air Base, then flew on to Guam and then Hawaii on Feb. 26.
