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Sunday, February 26, 2006
Arrests, raids mark emergency rule
MANILA -- Arrests of anti-Arroyo critics and raids on offices of a newspaper were made a day after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo placed the country under a state of emergency to quash a coup plot.
Arroyo's declaration last Friday -- made as Filipinos celebrated the return of democracy 20 years ago when dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted by a "people power" revolt -- set off an uproar even from her most crucial ally, former president Fidel Ramos.
Ramos, who stood by Arroyo during last year's failed impeachment bid, joined the President's critics, saying in a TV interview: "I was not only surprised, I was appalled, I am dismayed" by the declaration which he described as "overkill".
Surprising, Ramos said, because the Aquino administration saw no reason to declare a state of national emergency even when faced with several coup attempts and appalling because the declaration was stealing the spirit of Edsa.
"Why can't she be like Cory Aquino who was cool under fire... look at Malacañang now. It's looking like a fortress," Ramos added.
Ramos believes that the declaration would do the country more harm than good. "We have to attend to the apprehensions of the foreign community from which most of the investments into our country will come. Already the peso got hit and the PSE index got badly mauled Saturday," he said.
The former president also revealed that Malacañang had requested his presence with the President Friday as a show of force but Ramos, who sometime ago publicly declared that his support to Arroyo was waning, refused.
"Now with this PP 1017 and the lack of a clear path or roadmap for the country to follow considering over all these developments let me just say it is waning... waning. She's fond of using people like us, Cory, soldiers, veterans, senior citizens like myself as props," he added.
Newspaper raid
Police raided The Daily Tribune office in Port Area, Manila, past midnight Saturday 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 will file a case.
"What's this martial law? Does the state of national emergency allow the policemen of (President) Arroyo to just confiscate anything they please?" Olivares said in a television interview.
The newspaper, owned by Olivarez's family, has been among the most critical of Arroyo.
Arroyo, in issuing Proclamation 1017, also warned the media against irresponsible reporting. She said the media should not be "publishing rumors and baseless information."
Olivares said a staffer told her that police had asked where the paper's dispatching units could be found. She also said The Daily Tribune's Saturday issue had no report promoting the cause of Arroyo's political foes.
Media practitioners have rallied behind The Daily Tribune, which had been the subject of the "first attack" against freedom of the press.
Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo warned broadcast companies against airing "seditious" interviews.
Critics
Also on Saturday, Anakpawis party-list Representative Crispin Beltran was picked up by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.
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 yet.
The congressman, along with a bodyguard, his wife, and two other companions, were flagged down in Bulacan by soldiers led by a certain Major Rene Corpuz and are now in Camp Crame for questioning by the CIDG.
Beltran's colleagues in the House questioned his arrest and the timing saying why was it done only now.
Pateros-Taguig Representative Alan Peter Cayetano urged House Speaker Jose de Venecia to condemn the alleged harassment being pressed against members of the Lower House.
If de Venecia could easily defend President Arroyo every time she gets "hit" by her critics, Cayetano said the House Speaker should intercede more with the matter where a member of the Lower House, which he leads, is being harassed.
Opposition congressmen, including representative Francis Escudero, Teddy Casiño, Roilo Golez, Rolex Suplico, Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano, Gilbert Remulla, Joel Villanueva, Etta Rosales, Rosa Hontiveros-Baraquel, Ma. Imelda "Imee" Marcos and Ronaldo Zamora, denounced the arrest of Beltran.
Beltran's acting chief-of-staff Ofelia Balleta called on House Speaker Jose de Venecia to "uphold the integrity of the House of Representatives and of the 1987 Constitution which gives its members immunity from any arrest while Congress is in session."
De Venecia, for his part, asked the Philippine National Police to coordinate with the Lower House in case there are arrests to be made on members of the Lower Chamber.
After the arrest of Beltran, some CIDG operatives went to the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City allegedly to pick up another militant lawmaker, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo, who was then holding a press conference with the entire minority bloc.
Ocampo evaded arrest by taking other hotel exits and thereafter boarded other vehicles. His two security personnel were, however, arrested by the police.
At the same time, two former police generals were also taken into custody at a golf course. Ramon Montaño had previously urged Arroyo to resign, while Rex Piad backed Fernando Poe Jr. in the 2004 elections won by Arroyo.
Montaño in a television interview said there was no warrant for his arrest and it was PNP chief Director Arturo Lomibao who ordered to bring him in.
"It is very hard to refuse an invitation if they are backed up with one platoon of soldiers. They did not tell us why, maybe for asking Gloria to resign that's the only act I have done for the past days," Montaño said.
Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, meanwhile, appealed for calm amidst tension in the country.
"As we discern the signs of the times, we call upon all in civil society to exercise prudence, sobriety, patience and vigilance," said Lagdameo in a press statement. (AP/AFP/Sunnex)
(February 26, 2006 issue)
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