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The Reagan Administration had been quietly pressing Marcos for some time to institute democratic reforms. With the assassination, however, Washington suddenly found itself facing an unexpected dilemma: How to keep the Philippine regime at arm's length without compromising U.S. strategic interests. The Administration quickly rejected calls to send a delegation to Aquino's funeral. Instead, officials decided that the "proper" representative was Michael Armacost, the U.S. Ambassador in Manila. Likewise, Reagan decided not to cancel his November visit too hastily. Such a move, officials argued, would amount to prejudging Marcos. Washington, however, did put considerable pressure on the Philippine President to appoint an independent committee to investigate the murder and "swiftly and vigorously track down the perpetrators of this political assassination .. . and punish them to the full extent of the law." The move put some space between Washington and Manila and left open the possibility that Reagan could say no to the visit at a later date, if the Marcos government is indeed implicated. At midweek Marcos announced the formation of a five-member fact-finding judicial commission to probe the assassination. Critics charged at once that the commission, which contained no opposition figures, is unlikely to be impartial. Marcos named the very independent Cardinal Sin to the panel, but the respected prelate refused to participate. Publicly, the Cardinal pleaded conflicting religious duties. Privately, an aide reportedly claimed, he felt he would be a "voice in the wilderness."
As events took their course in Manila last week, there was an uneasy feeling that the Philippines may have crossed a dangerous new threshold, that perhaps the old, more civilized rules of politics no longer applied. As Governor Homobono Adaza of the province of Misamis Oriental told TIME'S Nelly Sindayen: "If a guy like Ninoy can be killed, then just about anybody can be killed now without qualms, without conscience." —By John Nielsen. Reported by Sandra Burton/Manila and Ross H. Munro/Washington