August 22, 1983

''I have returned on my free will to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedoms through nonviolence.'' - Benigno S. Aquino Jr., in a statement prepared for his return to the Philippines. (A8:1.)

Most of the afternoon was a contrast, power pitching against finesse pitching. Dave Righetti, on the mound for the Yankees, was cutting his way through the California order with fastballs. Geoff Zahn, for the Angels, was flirting with the Yankees, skipping out of jams with off-speed pitches and breaking balls. In the end, though, offensive power was the decisive factor. Ken Griffey, with two out in the bottom of the ninth, lashed Zahn's 0-1 pitch to right field for a two-run single to give the Yankees a 2-1 victory yesterday in front of 50,896.

They had been fishing for two hours off Sandy Hook, N.J., yesterday, and the hardest thing hitting the deck of the 110-foot Palace II was the sun's rays. Blues and fluke were what they were going for, with most of the 60 people aboard after fluke. At each new fishing spot, the engines were cut, the horn was sounded and the four dozen fluke fishermen lowered their baited hooks to the bottom and waited for something to happen. It seldom did.

International A single shot in Manila killed President Ferdinand E. Marcos's strongest political rival. The opposition leader, Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was shot within minutes of his return home from three years of self-exile in the United States. He was shot while being escorted by military guards off a plane at Manila International Airport, where thousands of his followers were waiting. Maj. Gen. Prospero Olivas, the police chief, strongly denied that a security detail had carried out the slaying. (Page A1, Column 6.) Filipinos gathered in a Boston suburb at the home of Corazon Aquino, wife of Benigno S. Aquino Jr., some arriving from Filipino exile communities in Dallas, New Orleans and New York. Mrs. Aquino said she felt ''fatalistic'' about her husband's death. (A1:4.)

At 1:20 yesterday morning, a boisterous crowd had gathered around a three-card monte game at the corner of Broadway and 44th Street. A young woman who looked to be an out-of- towner - her eyes wandering up and down the Times Square neon, her tailored suit like that of a theatergoer - noticed the excitement and stepped over to watch. As she did, two young men nudged her. One came from the left, the other from the right. A third, wearing a bright green baseball cap and white sneakers with green laces, reached from behind, grabbing the wallet out of her brown vinyl purse. Wallet in hand, he scurried down 44th Street toward Eighth Avenue. But he did not get far. The woman, Police Officer Mary Ann Millard, was a decoy. The youths were arrested within minutes and charged with grand larceny. Handcuffs were snapped around their wrists, and the wallet, which contained only $1, was put back in the purse to wait for another thief. The police declined to identify the youths because they were minors.