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Saturday, March 18, 2006
Ex-social welfare chief arrested for 'illegal assembly'
MANILA -- Police on Friday arrested a former Cabinet secretary for illegal assembly and two suspected followers of a former senator wanted for his alleged role in last month's thwarted coup, officials said.
Former Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman and activist Vicente Romano were arrested for leading a silent protest in Manila of about 30 people wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan "Oust Now," apparently calling for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign.
Police said they were arrested for holding a rally without a permit at a popular tree-lined promenade on the edge of Manila Bay.
"We are not holding a rally, we are just strolling. We are not disturbing anyone, we don't even have placards," Soliman said.
Superintendent Marcelino Pedroso, chief of the Malate Police Station, said Soliman and Romano, her fellow convenor in the anti-government group Black and White Movement (BWM), were arrested at 6:30 p.m. for violation of the Anti-Illegal Assembly Act after they failed to show a rally permit.
Pedroso said Soliman and Romano were with some 30 protestors but only the two, as leaders of the protest, should be arrested pursuant to the law.
He said Soliman's group was obviously conducting a protest rally because they were all wearing black T-shirts with words: "Patalsikin na, Now na!"
Police plan to file an illegal assembly complaint against Soliman and Romano, and a prosecutor is expected to conduct inquest proceedings Friday night, Metropolitan Manila police chief Director Vidal Querol said by telephone.
Soliman is one of the 10 Cabinet officials who withdrew support from Arroyo and called for her resignation in the wake of the wiretapping controversy shrouding the May 10, 2004 elections, in which the President was one of the candidates.
Separately, police arrested Ricardo Pauso and Melchor Lobete, both members of a civilian-military fraternity known as the Guardians Brotherhood Inc., Friday in northern Bulacan province, Querol said. Police seized several high-powered weapons, including rifle grenades and magazines for M-16 rifles, from the men.
Former Senator Gregorio Honasan, accused by the government of playing a role in last month's thwarted coup, is a faction leader of the Guardians.
"We are checking if they are followers of ex-Senator Honasan because the Guardians have mutated into several factions," Querol said. "They are not giving a definitive statement."
Querol said the men were carrying Guardian membership cards and apparently spurious cards identifying them as military intelligence agents.
Honasan, a former army colonel, has not been seen in public since last month. After leading coup attempts against then-President Corazon Aquino in 1987 and 1989, the government granted him amnesty in 1995. He has since been charged in a mutiny by about 300 junior officers and personnel from elite military units in July 2003.
Arroyo imposed a weeklong state of national emergency last month to quash a coup plot that allegedly involved disgruntled soldiers, communist rebels and civilian backers. (ECV/AP/Sunnex)
(March 18, 2006 issue)
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