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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1987)
TKe Battalion 82 No. 83 CISPS 045360 18 pages College Station, Texas Friday, January 23, 1987 arines kill 12 in Philippines street clash MANILA, Philippines (AP) —Ma es fired M-l(i ault rifles into a iwd of peasants and leftists de riding land reform Thursday, Vr 12 and wounding 94 in the pdi( si su eet clash of Corazon ^^■o’s presidency. '"There will be those who seek to ll'Bt this tragic incident to derail t^Kfforts to bring democracy,” uino said in an address broadcast KBiwide after the slayings. ligHo on Thursday, her peace ini- tive toward Communist rebels all irveit collapsed as Communist and T Hnment negotiators suspended talks indefinitely because of death threats. An estimated 10,000 people orga nized by the leftist Movement of Philippine Farmers marched from the downtown Post Office toward the presidential palace to demand that farm plots be given to the land less. About 500 national police and marines lined up eight deep waiting for them at the Mendiola Bridge, 300 yards from Malacanang Palace’s main gate. The bridge was the site of several bloody civilian-military con frontations during the 20-year rule of ex-President Ferdinand E. Mar cos. As the front ranks of marchers approached police lines, they began chanting “Come and join! Don’t be afraid!” Marchers linked arms across Recto Street and began pushing against the front line of brown-uni- formed troops of the Integrated Na tional Police deployed in front of the bridge. The police, behind long plastic shields, shoved the marchers back a few steps. But the protesters then surged forward. The police fell back about 10 yards. Stones flew from among the marchers. Suddenly, marines in full battle dress deployed behind the police opened fire with M-16s, first into the air for about two minutes, then into the panicked crowd for three more minutes. The firing continued while people ran into the street to drag the dead and wounded out of the firing line. When the firing ceased, four jeeploads of police raced forward, scattering the remaining demonstra tors with volleys of tear gas. Before the clash, Jaime Tedeo, the leader of the Movement of Phil ippine Farmers, exhorted the marchers to challenge the forces guarding the palace. Denouncing what he and other leftist and peasant leaders have called slow and inefficient imple mentation of land reform, he told a rally before the march: “Charge to Malacanang! Let’s break down the barricades!” Several young men among the marchers tore iron bars from a gate, and others carried wooden clubs with protruding nails. Aquino recently granted land ti tles to nearly 6,000 tenant farmers in northern Luzon. Fleherson Alvarez, the agrarian reform minister, says his ministry is preparing to distrib ute about 18,000 titles and more will come later. Aquino, who came to power 11 months ago after a civilian-military uprising forced Marcos to flee to Hawaii, expressed shock over the killings. She announced creation of a spe cial commission under retired Su preme Court Justice Jose Feria to in vestigate the clash and promised to punish those responsible. ES Officials: Crash If jet occurred n maneuvers STIN (AP) — Two Air Force hat collided near Brownwood killed two pilots were experi- enting with aerial attack-and- ade maneuvers and not locked in simulated dogfight as witnesses rs| thought, officials said Thurs- k Two Air Force officers were and two managed to par- ;hute to safety Wednesday after ic fiery collision. It was the second military air di- ister in two days. Bfficials at Bergstrom Air Force ase in Austin, where the jets were ased, declined to be specific about 'hat may have caused the crash. Capt. Michael K. Elder, 31, of cattle, and 1st Lt. Walter W. Ko- ak, 24, of Ormond Beach, Fla. rere killed in the collision. The RF-4C Phantom II jets, thicli can fly at twice the speed of ound and are used as photo- J Badets’ or assault fe By Curtis L. Culberson Staff Writer A tenative court date of Feb. 4 has ten set for the six freshman cadets targed with the Nov. 18 assault of mone Weaver at the bonfire site, at investigations by both the De- irtment of Student Affairs and the ammandanf s Office are being con- icted to determine if other parties sre involved. Brian MacManus, James L. De- ase III, Andrew C. Cooper, Cody :ogin, Clinton D. Taylor and Wil ma Paul Miller have requested a ■Strial and will be represented by •.conomy |U.S. hit )y deficit WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bcconomy, weighted down by a ge foreign trade deficit, turned in worst performance in 1986 since ; last recession, the government aoried Thursday. The Commerce Department said is gross national product, the broa- stinieasuie of economic health, j||2.5 percent last year, the wea- st growth rate since a 2.5 percent cline during the recession of 1982. Bui the news on inflation was ex- ational. A price index tied to the *1? turned in its best performance ce 1967, a 2.7 percent rise last tr which was held down by the Hade plunge in oil prices. For J fourth quarter, this inflation in- Hose at an annual rate of 1 per- it, the slowest advance of the tole year. / He administration believed that H>ly lower oil prices and falling Ar ip st rates would help lift the inomy out of the doldrums. Hwever, the country’s trade defi- Hared to a new record, throwing Hountry’s manufacturing sector o a virtual recession, while the big | op in oil prices forced layoffs in • j# ipetroleum industry. l^pHvate economists said the weak- ' * Hin the fourth quarter was dis- , Hng and some analysts forecast owth could drop even farther be- of adverse impacts from the ax law. graphic reconnaisance aircraft, col lided about 14,000 feet above Lake Brownwood, Bergstrom spokeswo man Wanda Whitney said. Lake Brownwood is in a military operations area that is about 140 miles northwest of the base, Whit ney said. “The defensive maneuvering training mission is one in which air craft maneuver to defeat a simu lated aerial attack,” she said. She said that it was not a simu lated dogfight as some observers at the scene said. She declined to give further de tails, including whether the two sur vivors were on the same plane. Herman Thompson, a farmer near the crash site, said he looked skyward after hearing what See Crash, page 14 date set charges attorney Henry C. Paine, said Justice Clerk Louisa Dunn. The case has been turned over from Justice of the Peace Michael Calliham to Justice of the Peace Wes ley Hall, who will decide whether or not there will be a preliminary hear ing before the official court date, Dunn said. “It takes time to get a jury toge ther,” Dunn said. She added that there was more work to be done be fore an official date for a hearing could be released. Weaver has said that she would not have filed charges against the freshman cadets had they revealed the names of the people who or dered them to attack her. Weaver’s suspicions about the at tack were investigated by University Police. “Initially, when I talked to the people involved, I wasn’t able to get any names out of them,” Detective Will Scott said. “They claimed they didn’t know.” But Scott did say he has received information that the University Po lice may soon be getting some names from investigations being conducted by Student Affairs and the Com mandant’s Office. Scott added that if other parties were found, they could probably charged as accessories to the misde meanor assault. Dave Rogers, a junior in Company S-2, sits in the upper tiers of G. Rollie White Coliseum during All-U Night. Photo by Bill Hughes Corps yells dominate poorly-attended '87 spring version of Al -University Night Photo by Bill Hughes The Aggie Band got a little too loud for Leslie Thornton, 2, the daughter of assistant basketball coach John Thornton. Leslie’s brother Gabe, 5, didn’t seem to be affected by the noise. By Robert Morris Staff Writer Is it a spring sports pep rally or a chance for love-starved, prema turely balding, young men to make loud animal-like noises as the wom en’s track team walks in their pres ence? Both descriptions are suitable in assessing the 1987 spring version of All-University Night. The answer depends largely on the observer’s point of view. Of course, that observer would most likely be a whoop-happy mem ber of the group mentioned above. The crowd was composed largely of members of the Corps of Cadets, who, in their exuberance, created most of the excitement in an other wise extremely long introduction ceremony. The latest edition of the spring All-University Night was held Thursday night at G. Rollie White Coliseum. It played to an audience of about 800 to 1,000, considerably less than the attendance the football team receives for its fall counterpart. The welcome back pep rally was designed to heighten attention to ward and attendance at spring sports events such as baseball games and tennis matches. Women’s Athletic Director Lynn Hickey said, “Aggieland is a very special place to be, but the thing that makes us special is not the traditions and the customs, it’s the people that carry them on. “We need you at our contests. If you will attend our event you will be proud of what you see. We are win ners, but we will be bigger and better winners if you will help us.” Hickey was followed by Charlie Thomas, the men’s and women’s track coach, who was upstaged by the ever-present barrage of cheers of appreciation from the Corps of Cadets. Seemingly, the women’s team received ovations according to skirt length rather than athletic ac complishment. The subsequent introduction cer emonies by the coaches of other post-football sports largely followed the same pattern. The program closed with a brief yell practice. A&M prof’s libel suit moved to Houston By Christi Daugherty Staff Writer A year-old libel case filed by a Texas A&M professor is still awaiting trial but has been trans ferred from a Minnesota federal court to a Texas federal court. The suit was filed June 18, 1986 by Terry Anderson, an asso ciate professor of history, against both the Accuracy In Academia (AIA) and Accuracy in Media conservative watchdog corpora tions. It is based on a syndicated col umn published by the Washing ton D.C.-based AIA and printed in about 10 college newspapers around the country. Anderson, who is a University of Minnesota graduate, has said he originally filed the $50,000 case in that state because he first heard of the column from the ed itor of the University of Minne sota newspaper. William D. Harper, Anderson’s attorney, said that the Minnesota judge decided to change the ve nue of the case because none of the parties involved lived in that state. The case will now be tried in the Houston court of Federal Dis trict Judge Carl Bue, Harper said, if one more hurdle can be cleared. Matthew Scully, one of the de fendants in the trial, is out of the country and participants in the case must wait for him to return in order to determine if the case can be tried in federal court, Harper said. Scully has declared Texas his legal residence, and if that proves true the case does not fall within federal jurisdiction. If the case is tried in federal court, Harper said, he is confi dent of a victory, and if the case cannot be tried in that court, An derson will refile at a different level. The Campus Report column on which the case-is based was dis tributed in October 1985 and gar nered its information and quotes from a Battalion article published the year before. The AIA column compared Anderson’s beliefs, as published by The Battalion, to those of the devil, Lucifer, and called him a “hog charging the morning trough.” The October 1984 Battalion story was written when Anderson won the Association of Former Students’ award for distinguished teaching and described his goals as “to provoke, stimulate and challenge students’ ideas.” Anderson, who is still a profes sor at A&M but is currently in Malaysia, was also quoted in The Battalion article as saying, “I do not believe in the institution of marriage, I am atheist and I do not claim any political party. I am not patriotic toward Texas A&M, Texas, the flag or America. But I am not any different than other Americans as far as emotions and a concern for humanity.” The Campus Report authors, Scully and lies Csorba III, used part of that quote but left out the last line. The authors, who are defendants in the case, followed the quote with, “Lucifer himself could not have framed his credo any better.” John Hemenway, an attorney with Accuracy in Media, called the situation and the case wild and absurd. “The article was published from a Battalion article which he never claimed to have an argu ment with,” Hemenway said. “We just said what you printed that he said. And within all this it’s wild, just absurd that he would try to sue us — located as we are in Washington — in a court in Min nesota.” Hemenway described the AIA as completely separate from Ac curacy in Media, but sharing many of the same views. Both groups, he said, despise things that offend the democratic proc ess. “There is a constant need on campus and in the news industry to have people who care about freedom or honesty or truth in reporting and in the classroom to tell their co-workers that what’s important is not to grind their own axes, but to teach and report the truth,” Hemenway said.