News In Brief
| Washington
Secretary of State George Shultz hinted yesterday that the Reagan administration would consider withdrawing from two strategic military bases in the Philippines if it decides President Ferdinand Marcos won reelection through fraud and no longer has the support of the people in his country. Mr. Shultz told the Senate Budget Committee: ``Let's put our stake in democracy and freedom above the bases.''
But the secretary, testifying on a new foreign aid bill, urged Congress to delay any ``precipitous action'' until Philip Habib, President Reagan's special envoy, returns next week from a fact-finding mission in the Philippines.
And the Senate, in a nonbinding resolution passed by an 85-to-9 vote yesterday, declared that the Philippine presidential elections had been ``marked by such widespread fraud that they cannot be considered a fair reflection of the will of the people of the Philippines.''
The vote came shortly after Democratic leader Robert C. Byrd of W. Virginia asked President Reagan to convey personally to President Marcos American concerns over fraud in the Feb. 7 election.
