NATION : Marcos Dying; Aquino Says He Can’t Come Home--Dead or Alive

Ferdinand E. Marcos lay dying in Honolulu today and his wife, Imelda, appealed to the woman who deposed him as president of the Philippines to grant his last wish and let her comatose husband return home from exile in Hawaii.

“He is very, very ill. His temperature has risen and he is still in very critical condition,” a tired-looking Imelda Marcos told reporters at the hospital where Marcos was said by doctors to be near death. “Maybe the government of President Corazon Aquino will fulfill a dying wish and allow my husband home,” she said.

But in Manila, Aquino said that although she was praying for the recovery of the 71-year-old Marcos, she would not allow him to return from exile in Hawaii--dead or alive.