News In Brief

Manila financial district erupts again; press rapped

More than 5,000 office workers set off firecrackers and showered the streets with torn newspapers in Manila's financial district of Makati Wednesday in protest at what they said was government control of the Philippine press. Many carried banners thanking President Reagan for calling off his Philippine trip.

The demonstrations came as the government of President Ferdinand Marcos imposed death as the maximum penalty on people convicted of certain types of dissent. Also, the Central Bank of the Philippines announced a 21.4 percent devaluation of the peso to offset the country's mounting foreign debt. (Related story, Page 17.)