No Marcos Plan to Leave Hawaii Soon, Aide Says

WASHINGTON — Ousted Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos is increasingly frustrated by lawsuits and unfavorable stories in the American press but has no intention of leaving Hawaii in the near future, an associate familiar with those matters said Sunday.

The associate, speaking on the condition that he not be named, said that Marcos and his wife, Imelda, “very much want to stay in the United States” and that he knows of no active effort to find a haven elsewhere but that Marcos “is considering other options” to permanent U.S. residence.

Called ‘Unemotional’

A knowledgeable observer who is familiar with Marcos’ Hawaii exile described the former Philippine leader as disturbed by growing news accounts of his alleged theft of billions in government money but “very calm, analytical and unemotional about it all.”

His wife, however, has been more upset by the publicity and the strain of fleeing the Philippines and “feels under a lot of pressure and concern” about responsibility for the servants and aides accompanying the couple, the observer said.

“They try to not read the newspapers and watch the television,” he said.

A State Department official said Sunday that the United States has expressed willingness to help the Marcoses relocate but has left that decision--and the choice of a new home--to Marcos himself.

“In no way would we try to put any pressure on other countries to accept him. He’s doing the work,” the official said. “After all, he knows a lot of these people (in other friendly countries) pretty well. He’s no amateur.”

The official, who refused to be named, said that Marcos “is looking at a lot of countries, I gather--and probably some that we don’t know anything about.” But he said it is unknown whether the Marcoses and their retinue could find a willing and safe host outside the United States.

Report Played Down

The State Department official and the Marcos associate both played down a New York Times report saying that the United States has made “serious” inquiries to Spain, Mexico and Panama about their willingness to accept the Marcoses.

The report, attributed to a senior Reagan Administration official, said that Marcos has asked for help in finding a permanent home outside the United States and described him as “deeply worried” by lawsuits and inquiries into the U.S. activities of himself and Filipino friends.

The United States has told Marcos and the nations cited in the report that the Marcos party would be welcomed back to U.S. soil should their relocation not succeed, according to the account.

Court Decision Expected

The report surfaced as the International Court of Trade in New York prepared to decide today whether Marcos is entitled to the immediate return of clothing, property and about 1,500 private documents impounded by U.S. Customs when the Marcos party fled to this country last month.

The documents, alleged to detail the location of billions of dollars worth of Philippine government assets that Marcos is accused of stealing, have become the focus of a struggle between the former president’s lawyers and the new Philippine government of President Corazon Aquino.

The Aquino government is pressing for access to the Marcos papers and for the recovery of any Philippine assets now in the United States.

Notified Over Weekend

Marcos was notified over the weekend that the U.S. government tentatively plans to give Aquino investigators copies of the 1,500 documents at noon today under an agreement allowing for exchanges of tax fraud information between the U.S. and Philippine governments.

Marcos is “obviously frustrated by the multitude of legal processes” facing him, the source familiar with details of Marcos’ Hawaii exile said Sunday, and is especially worried by the prospect that his private papers will be released.

But that source said Marcos sees “no indication” that he faces criminal prosecution here. Nor is he worried by grand jury investigations in Pittsburgh and suburban Washington that center on transactions between the old Marcos government and American firms, he said.