City in Suspense as Official Vote Tabulation Goes On : A Sense of Waiting in Manila

MANILA — A sergeant of the Presidential Security Command sat on a wall at Mendiola Bridge, his rifle slung over his shoulder.

“I don’t think we’re going to have any trouble here today,” he said, wiping his brow. “Not today.”

The people of Manila, charged with politics and rumor since President Ferdinand E. Marcos and opposition candidate Corazon Aquino held their final presidential rallies here last week, seemed to pause at midweek--perhaps for a second wind--as the official tabulation of the vote continued in the National Assembly.

Yet, as a traveler passed through the city, he was seldom out of earshot of radio election news, a broadcast background like Vin Scully at Dodger Stadium.

Waiting for Outcome

But there was a sense of waiting, waiting for the official vote and what it might bring.

At Mendiola Bridge, where police and demonstrators have clashed many times since the late 1960s, the sergeant and his men were waiting.

One side of the street, which leads to the presidential palace of Malacanang, was blocked by three rows of barriers, barbed wire coiled on heavy metal sawhorses. The other side was open to traffic, but only with a special pass checked by the guard detail.

Beside the bridge stands St. Mary’s store, where Luz Calado has sold school supplies to students of nearby colleges for 20 years.

St. Mary’s was having a poor day. The government ordered the schools closed 10 days before the election, and they have not been reopened. The store’s clerks had seen more exciting days.

“We used to keep wet towels here to use when the police fired tear gas at the demonstrators,” Calado said. “And once we lost our P and B when some students took it apart and burned it in the street.” P and B is the Peter and Bob video rental shack that stands in front of St. Mary’s.

Rumors of a March

There had been rumors that a militant group meeting at nearby Plaza Miranda would march on the bridge Tuesday. But the militants, members of the anti-Marcos Bayan organization, were able to raise only a small crowd at the plaza, a parking area beside the Quiapo Roman Catholic Church. A Bayan rallyist, waving a large red flag and wearing a bandanna over his face and a red and white shirt with the letters U.S.A. on it, said the closure of the schools had no effect on the turnout.

But on Espana Avenue, the so-called U-belt, site of the Far East and Santo Tomas universities, Cecile Velasco was sure that the schools had been closed to frustrate any attempts to organize demonstrations against Marcos, a longtime target of Manila’s students.

The 18-year-old sat with her boyfriend on a bench at the Santo Tomas campus, “just killing time.”

“There’s a lot of suspense. It’s day-to-day on classes,” she said.

On the university gate a handwritten sign said, “No Classes Feb. 10,” and the 10 had been crossed out and an 11 added.

Worried Over Exams

“Many students are worried,” Velasco said. “We’ve got prelims (exams) coming up and the library is closed.”

Across Espana, Mayric’s, a university hangout that features country bands at night, was empty. “A lot of kids have gone home,” a waitress said. The U-belt theaters were doing better as students barred from their classrooms whiled away the time at the popular sex and violence movies, like “Perfumed Garden” and “The Annihilators.”

Near the posh Forbes Park area across town, shoppers in the local market were talking about their children, not politics. White-uniformed maids kept an eye on youngsters riding the mechanical hobbyhorse at the front of the store.

At the nearby Makati City Hall, the crowds that had filled the courtyard since Saturday have diminished. “They’re not even counting,” said an opposition representative. “The (ballot) boxes are stilled locked in the warehouse.”