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Saturday, February 25, 2006
Gov't cracks down on opposition, media
MANILA (Updated 3:15 p.m.) -- The Arroyo administration launched Saturday a drive against the opposition by arresting two anti-government critics and raiding a pro-opposition newspaper.
The moves were in relation to Proclamation 1017, which President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued last Friday, placing the entire country under a state of emergency following an aborted coup.
Anakpawis party-list Representative Crispin Beltran was arrested by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan at around 10 a.m. Saturday.
Beltran's arrest was the first apprehension of an opposition legislator.
Reports said Beltran was picked up on the strength of a warrant issued in relation to a sedition case filed against him in 1985.
Beltran's colleagues in the House questioned his arrest and the timing saying why was it done only now.
Soldiers, led by a certain Major Corpuz flagged down Beltran, along with a bodyguard, his wife, and two other companions.
Beltran is in Camp Crame now for questioning by the CIDG.
The Bayan Muna group deplored Beltran's arrest and called for his immediate release.
At about 2 p.m., former Constabulary chief, retired general Ramon Montaño, was invited for questioning by the police while playing golf in Cavite.
Reports said Montaño, a vocal critic of the Arroyo administration, was told that he has an invitation by National Police Chief Arturo Lomibao to Camp Crame to be investigated for alleged involvement in the aborted coup last Friday.
Meanwhile, police raided The Daily Tribune office in the Port Area, Manila, late Friday night and seized several copies of its Saturday issue that were about to be dispatched nationwide.
Niñez Cacho Olivares, publisher of The Daily Tribune, decried the act saying that the police conducted the raid without a warrant. She also said they would file a case.
"What's this martial law? Does the state of national emergency allow the policemen of Gloria to just confiscate anything they please?" Olivares said in a television interview.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in issuing Proclamation 1017 declaring the state of national emergency effective last Friday when a coup attempt against her was aborted, warned the media against irresponsible reporting.
Arroyo said media should not be "publishing rumors and baseless information."
Olivares said she was told by a staffer that police had asked where the paper's dispatching units can be found.
She also said The Daily Tribune's Saturday issue had no report promoting the cause of Arroyo's political foes. (Sunnex)
Philippine politics, perpetually in crisis
Pre-emptive strikes undercut coup plot, opposition
Arroyo declares state of emergency; markets spooked, peso down
(February 25, 2006 issue)
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