Why Is This Man Smirking?

At Corazon Cojuangco's wedding to Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1954, his best friend Salvador Laurel was part of the groom's entourage. When the widow Corazon Aquino ran for President against Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, Laurel stood as her Vice President. But don't let those ties fool you. Doy, as he is known to Filipinos, has chafed at being second best all these years, first to the charismatic Benigno and now to his wife. Accusing Cory of reneging on a promise to let him run the government once the two were elected, he bitterly broke off their alliance and joined the opposition in 1987. However, he has not resigned from his high office to emphasize political differences. Rather, he has stayed on as her implacable understudy, as if waiting for the star to break a leg -- or worse.

According to a White House official, Laurel, stranded in Hong Kong during the mutiny, had his chief of staff telephone U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Platt in Manila. Laurel's aide requested U.S. support for the Vice President's offer to broker a negotiated solution to the impasse. The deal: Aquino would be replaced by a rebel junta, presumably including Laurel himself. The U.S. declined the offer. Late last week Laurel denied he had made such a request and demanded a denial from Platt as well. The embassy replied that during the coup attempt there was no "communication" between Laurel and the Ambassador.

The U.S. is well aware of Laurel's impatience and his ambition. Soon after Doy became Aquino's Vice President, a senior administration official laid it on the line during a meeting in Washington. "Look, pal," he said. "we support Mrs. Aquino. We don't care who you go to -- the Pentagon or the State Department or whoever -- the answer is the same." But the Vice President hasn't stopped trying. As the latest coup was under way, Laurel called it a display of democracy in action. Replied the U.S. State Department's deputy spokesman Richard Boucher: "We clearly do not view it that way."