All Choked Up

THE PHILIPPINE "elections" now appear to promise not democracy but a bloodbath of dreadful proportions.

The killing began even before the forces of President Ferdinand E. Marcos had finished falsifying the vote totals.

The murder of four key supporters of challenger Corazon C. Aquino in the provinces over the last three days is most likely just the beginning. One of the slain was Evelio Javier, the hometown rival of Arturo Pacificador, the leader of Marcos forces in the national assembly.

This round of killing is surely only a prelude to the slaughter that will follow Marcos' "re-election." As Mrs. Aquino said, "Too many will be dead the moment the world's head is turned."

Of course, Marcos and his supporters might have had nothing to do with the killing of their opposition. As Pacificador said, "I think it may have been the communists insurgents." Sounds familiar.

United States pressure on Marcos was one hope of preventing the slaughter. But that hope is fading rapidly, under the weight of the sleepy cowboy's off-the-cuff remarks in Tuesday's news conference.

Far be it from our fearless leader to offer any criticism of Marcos for his election fraud, which included bringing the count to a standstill, threatening to invalidate the election, and finally placing vote totals on the tally board so at odds with the actual computer count that 30 members of his own election commission walked off the job Monday.

Far be it from Reagan to reprimand Marcos for the widespread killing of opposition representives and independent poll-watchers over the past two months.

Instead, the President chose to express his own novel idea that perhaps "fraud could have been occurring on both sides."

Maybe the unanimous reports of election watchers, including the U.S.'s own official observer team and the State Department, that Aquino forces had not been involved in any significant fraud or violence didn't find their way to Reagan's desk.

What could possess even our President to disregard the reports of his own commission that if not for Marcos' fraud, Mrs. Aquino would have 60 to 70 percent of the vote? And why is he condoning Marcos' violence?

CHOKE POINTS.

The President explained to the media Tuesday that there were 16 choke points--vital straits and canals through which supplies and raw materials are shipped to the West--that the Soviets would try to close in a war.

According to our strategically minded President, U.S. military bases in the Philippines are vital to protect the choke points in Indonesia.

As usual, the President has not let the facts interfere with his policy. The Pentagon said Wednesday, according to The New York Times, that the Soviets "would not place a high priority on attacking many of the choke points cited by Mr. Reagan." Other experts said the Soviets were actually more vulnerable to the closing of the points than the West.

There is a larger, much more terrifying issue at stake here than the President's ignorance.

For example, one of the choke points is the straits of Skagerrak, adjacent to Germany. What if the Nazis today controlled such a choke point? Would we then condone their mass murder in the face of the Soviet threat?

Why not? Where do we draw the line? If you kill 50,000 or 100,000, like Marcos, that's okay. It's at your first million that we draw the line. Better watch the count, Ferdinand.

If not numbers, what then? Who you kill? If you are an equal opportunity killer, that's fine, but if you kill just Jews, that's no good. Must be the new civil rights policy.

Such distinctions are not only ridiculous but unworkable. Either you support murderers, or you don't. If you decide military bases and choke points are more important than human life, if you decide that preparation for war is more important than preserving democracy, there is no going back.

That road has already led us to Marcos' door, bearing gifts, and I'd rather not see the the kinds of friends choke points are going to make us in the future.