( Reuters )

    MANILA, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Two women were trampled to death and 
dozens of people were injured on Saturday when thousands of poor Filipinos 
begging for government aid broke into a stampede outside the presidential 
palace, police said. 
    The injured included presidential guards who tried to hold the 
surging mob back from a special office set up by President Joseph 
Estrada to deal with petitions from the poor, a palace spokesman said. 

    Thousands have gathered outside the palace nearly every day since 
Estrada took office on June 30, having fought an election campaign 
devoted to the rights of the poor. 
    "People were pushing," sobbed Edna Cordero, 49, who said she was 
with a friend during the melee. 
    "I was lucky I was able to run but my companion could not," she 
told Reuters. 
    "Later on, I saw her lying on her back, she was dead. Somebody 
had taken her rings, earrings and watch." 
    Palace officials said the stampede broke out when the office ran 
out of forms for the poor to fill in with their requests before they 
are interviewed. 
    The palace distributed 25,000 forms on Saturday, they said. "The 
schedule for interview was filled up to January 22, 1999," a presidential 
guard distributing the forms told Reuters. 
    About a third of the population of 70 million lives below the 
poverty line. 
    "Two were confirmed dead at the... hospital," senior police officer 
Jose Pira said. "They were probably crushed by the crowd." 
    At least 45 people suffered mostly minor injuries, police said. 

     Presidential spokesman Jerry Barican said financial aid would 
be given to the families of those killed and injured. 
    "We will take the proper steps to avoid a repetition of this incident 
and provide adequate security at the site," he said. 
    "I want to ask the government what it can do for us...I don't 
think I'm going back here," said housewife Perla Garcia, 31. 
    "I saw the woman who died, there was blood dripping from her ears."
 
    The crowd, initially estimated by police at between 10,000 and 
15,000 people, started gathering as early as Friday night to ask for 
help ranging from jobs and houses to land and loans. 
    Palace officials said the crowd continue to swell on Saturday 
afternoon even after the incident. 
    "I was here at 1:30 a.m. We wanted to get a form to make a request 
for a loan," said Merla Policarpio, 32, a factory worker, who sprained 
her leg during the stampede. 
    Some women fainted, witnesses said. 
    "I was pinned down. My feet were fractured. I felt somebody step 
on my chest and my face," sadi Salceda Patricio, 70, as she sat in 
a wheel chair after the incident. 
    "My cousin who was with me died," she added. 
    It was not immediately known where Estrada was at the time of 
the incident. The president still lives in his family home in a Manila 
suburb but has his office in the palace. 
    Estrada, a former movie actor idolised by the poor, had promised 
during the campaign for the May election to open the palace to ordinary 
people. 
    In a recent meeting with the crowd, Estrada told them to be patient 
saying the government he inherited was facing a huge budget deficit. 
                                     
REUTER
S@ 

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Dolly Aglay, FOCUS-Two die, dozens hurt in Philippine stampede. , Reuters, 08-22-1998.