
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 5, 1990                   TAG: 9003051989
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: MANILA                                 LENGTH: Short

PHILIPPINE REBELS KILL GENERAL

A major new crisis loomed Sunday for President Corazon Aquino's struggling administration after Philippine troops battled a renegade governor's heavily-armed supporters in northern Luzon and a senior military official held hostage was shot to death.

Government troops backed by helicopter gunships later stormed a seedy hotel in Tuguegarao, a provincial capital about 250 miles northeast of Manila, and rescued an Aquino Cabinet secretary and about 50 other officials and guests trapped by rebel forces since dawn.

Suspended Gov. Rodolfo Aguinaldo, who has been charged with supporting December's failed coup against Aquino, was still at large early today. Officials confirmed the death of Brig. Gen. Oscar Florendo, 51, chief armed forces spokesman and head of the military's civil relations branch. At least a dozen other people were reported killed and 10 wounded in the battle.

The daylong showdown raises dangerous new stakes for Aquino as she tries to restore confidence in her beleaguered administration and to crack down on rightist groups who have tried six times to topple her by military rebellion. The crisis also shows how little power her four-year-old government commands in regional fiefdoms increasingly controlled by local warlords and corrupt political bosses.

by CNB