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##### September 29, 1989 OBITUARY ## Ferdinand Marcos, Ousted Leader Of Philippines, Dies at 72 in Exile ##### By JANE GROSS Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES Ferdinand E. Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for 20 years until he was ousted in 1986, died in exile here today at St. Francis Medical Center after a long battle with heart, lung and kidney ailments. He was 72 years old. A hospital spokesman, Eugene Tiwanak, said Mr. Marcos died of cardiac arrest shortly after midnight. The former Philippine President had been hospitalized for nearly 10 months, often comatose. His wife, Imelda, was at his bedside. Mr. Marcos, an autocratic leader who imposed martial law in his homeland from 1972 to 1981, died without facing trial on United States criminal charges that he plundered the Philippine Treasury of more than $100 million in his two decades in power. Barred From Returning Home In a statement issued in Manila, President Corazon C. Aquino, Mr. Marcos's successor, offered condolences to the Marcos family. Mrs. Aquino announced that she would not allow Mr. Marcos's body to be brought to the Philippines for burial, saying she was acting for ''the safety of those who would take the death of Mr. Marcos in widely and passionately conflicting ways.'' The assassination in 1983 of Mrs. Aquino's husband, the oppostion leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., was a pivotal event in Mr. Marcos's downfall. President Aquino said Mr. Marcos's death ''closed a chapter in the history of our nation, a chapter uniquely his own.'' In deference to the Marcos family, Mrs. Aquino said she would leave it ''to others, and ultimately to history,'' to assess Mr. Marcos's rule, which ''touched the life of every Filipino who was his contemporary.'' President Bush, in a statement issued at an education summit conference in Charlottesville, Va., commended Mr. Marcos for his exit from power in 1986 amid a popular uprising and pressure from the United States Government after a disputed presidential election. By leaving the Philippines at ''a critical juncture in his nation's history,'' the White House statement said, Mr. Marcos ''permitted the peaceful transition to popular, democratic rule.'' Mr. Marcos's death was announced early this morning by his son, Ferdinand Jr., who emerged from the medical center's intensive care unit after reciting a rosary at his father's bedside, along with his mother and his sister, Irene Araneta. ''God has taken this great man from our midst to a better place,'' said the younger Marcos, 31 years old. ''Hopefully, friends and detractors alike will look beyond the man to see what he stood for his vision, his compassion and his total love of country.'' Mr. Marcos had been on the brink of death many times in his long hospitalization. A family spokesman, Roger Peyuan, said Mrs. Marcos had instructed doctors to take every possible step to save her husband's life. Mr. Tiwanak said Mr. Marcos's condition began deteriorating 36 hours before his death. He said a pacemaker was implanted about midday on Wednesday, ''and it appeared his functions were coming back to some normalcy.'' Mr. Tiwanak said the pacemaker was needed to keep Mr. Marcos's heart pumping but he also noted that because Mr. Marcos had ''multiple organ problems, any one of those could have gone completely.'' Mr. Marcos had spent most of the time since he entered the hospital in intensive care. According to Mr. Tiwanak, doctors had said that ''if any one of the machines were pulled off he would have died.'' Mr. Tiwanak said Mr. Marcos was semicomatose most of the time before the latest crisis. Mr. Peyuan, the family spokesman, said Mr. Marcos opened his eyes and recognized his son, who had flown here from California, shortly before he died. Liver and Kidney Failure There were several phases in Mr. Marcos's hospital stay when he appeared near death. In mid-May, he had surgery to prepare him for kidney dialysis. In early June, emergency exploratory surgery was performed after an abscess was found in his pancreas. In mid-June, more surgery was performed to correct a bleeding stomach ulcer. In late June, his liver failed and he had a 104-degree fever, but survived to undergo removal of his only functional kidney, which had been transplanted in 1984. Mr. Marcos became dependent on kidney dialysis for survival. His prognosis was poor, but doctors treated him with a new antibiotic. On Sept. 3 his blood pressure dropped sharply. A Marcos aide, Col. Arturo Aruiza, said funeral plans were pending at the Nuuanu Memorial Park Mortuary. A family spokesman said the body would be on view at the family compound in Makiki Heights until Sunday. There are no plans for burial of the body elsewhere, Colonel Aruiza said. Mrs. Marcos has said in the past that she intended to embalm her husband's body and display it in Hawaii while she awaited permission to return to the Philippines. F.A.A. Issues Order In Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an order at the request of the State Department barring any aircraft with the body of Mr. Marcos from leaving Hawaii or any other point in the United States for the Philippines. The F.A.A. said that ''such a return, or the attempt to do so, would create a danger to the safety of the aircraft and persons involved.'' Mr. Marcos's mother, Josefa, died last May at the age of 91. Her body has not buried, because her son had insisted on presiding at the funeral. Her body is on display at a museum in the Marcos's home province of Ilocos Norte. After Mr. Marcos's ouster from the Presidency, an inventory at Malacanang Palace in Manila found more than a thousand pairs of shoes belonging to Mrs. Marcos, 888 handbags, 71 pairs of sunglasses and 65 parasols - part of a lavish inventory that shocked and offended the world more than any past estimates of the Marcos's enormous wealth. Here in Honolulu, first in guest quarters at the Hickam Air Force Base and then in a hillside villa, Mrs. Marcos has entertained visitors with piano recitals, videos of her husband's presidential speeches and photographs of the couple in the embrace of world leaders. She recently recorded an album of ballads and is reported to have sung at her husband's bedside when he was alert. Mr. Marcos, his wife and eight others were indicted in New York last year by a Federal grand jury on racketeering charges. In April, the judge separated Mr. Marcos from the other defendants because he was too ill to stand trial. Mr. Marcos and nearly 100 members of his family and entourage arrived here in February 1986 aboard two United States Air Force jets. One carried passengers and the second had luggage and other personal property that was seized by the United States Customs Service. The seized property was valued then at $8.2 million and a bitter fight over custody of the items still is being waged in the Federal courts. The Marcoses have been living in a villa overlooking Honolulu that was provided for them by friends, according to Colonel Aruiza. The hospital bill for Mr. Marcos exceeded $500,000 but Mr. Tiwanak said the initial payment was made through the family's lawyers several weeks ago. Mr. Tiwanak said the hospital has been in touch with the lawyers ''to make sure they keep a current payment.''
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