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Sunday, June 12, 2005
Muslim rebels worry over fate of talks amid political crisis
By Al Jacinto
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has expressed serious concern Saturday that attempts to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, accused by the opposition of poll fraud, could affect its ongoing peace talks with the government.
Allegations of illegal gambling pay-off to Arroyo's husband, son and brother-in-law and charges that she rigged last year's elections have fueled coup rumors in Manila, and Arroyo, who denied the accusations, has placed military and police forces on alert.
"We are concerned that any changes in the government, like if Arroyo is forcibly removed from power, could set back our efforts and greatly affect the peace process, especially at this time that the MILF and the government peace negotiators are near in signing an accord that will end the more than three decades of hostilities in the southern Philippines," a rebel spokesman, Eid Kabalu, said.
The MILF said it was also a victim of government wiretapping six years ago. It said the police and military bugged telephone conversations of senior MILF leaders, including its chieftain Salamat Hashim, and his deputies Murad Ebrahim, Ghazali Jaafar, and Mohagher Iqbal. The military denied this accusation.
An ex-lawyer for former president Joseph Estrada, Allan Paguia, distributed to reporters illegally tapped telephone conversation of Arroyo urging an election commissioner to ensure she won the elections over closest rival the late movie actor Fernando Poe, Jr.
He said a friend sent the tapes to him last month.
A former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Samuel Ong on Friday surfaced to claim that he has four tapes of wiretapped conversations between Arroyo and election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, and that Poe was cheated in the elections. He demanded that Arroyo step down from Malacañang.
Ong, who admitted giving copies of tapes to three unnamed associates, for safe keeping, said he went public for fear that he would be kidnapped and killed by government agents to prevent him from exposing the alleged poll fraud.
A group of Catholic priests is protecting Ong after he sought safe refuge at the San Carlos Seminary in Manila. But government agents, backed by security forces, sent to arrest Ong, have surrounded the sprawling compound and were negotiating with the priests to surrender the former intelligence officer.
Civilian supporters and opposition politicians trooped to the seminary to protect Ong from being arrested.
The scandal was further fueled by claims of Sandra Cam, who told a Senate inquiry Thursday, that she collected illegal gambling money for the President's son Representative Mikey Arroyo and brother-in-law Representative Ignacio Arroyo. Both strongly denied the accusations and filed libel charges Friday against the woman, one of several witnesses of Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a staunch anti-illegal gambling advocate.
A decorated army commander in the southern Philippines Colonel Ricardo Morales was also sacked Friday for allegedly plotting to oust Arroyo and for criticizing a controversial hotel resort project that the military put up in the tourist island of Boracay.
The military said Morales, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 77, reportedly tried to recruit his classmates to launch a revolt against Arroyo. But Morales denied this and said he only posted an opinion in the e-group Plebe and Cavaliers Freedom Forum on June 1 and June 2, and had nothing to do with any coup plot against Arroyo.
In his e-mail message, Morales wrote: "The time has come for all good men to come to the aid of their society. The time for talking is over; the time for action is now. How can the 60-room resort in Boracay improve the AFP's capability to fight? Who determined this priority? We have hospitals without medicine and they spend money for this resort?"
"I am not stupid enough to advocate a course of action that will only make things worse for our society," he said.
Morales was also one of the senior military officers who exposed the corruption in the AFP when he wrote then Philippine armed forces chief general Narciso Abaya about the alleged unexplained wealth of Major General Carlos Garcia, who is now facing graft charges. (Sun.Star Zamboanga/Sunnex)
(June 12, 2005 issue)
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Senator seeks inquiry on Ong's revelation