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THE
Armed Forces and the National Police placed their forces
on red alert and heightened alert respectively on
Wednesday in time for the 21st anniversary of the People
Power Revolution on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa),
Metro Manila.
Last
year, politicians and military personnel identified with
the opposition allegedly attempted to stage a coup
against President Arroyo but were foiled.
Lt. Col.
Bartolome Bacarro, chief of the Armed Forces public
information office, said that although the situation is
normal and that the military has not monitored any
threat from any antigovernment forces, the declaration
of red alert has become a standard operating procedure
during commemoration of significant events.
“We have
not received any threat but traditionally we raised the
alert level just to make sure that we are prepared just
in case something happened,” said Bacarro during a news
conference at
Camp
Aguinaldo,
Quezon City, on Wednesday.
 On
February 24 last year, the military claimed to have
foiled an alleged plot by some military officers led by
the cashiered First Scout Ranger Regiment commander,
Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, to join the protesters at Edsa
and declare their withdrawal of support from President
Arroyo.
Two days
later, bemedalled Marine Col. Ariel Querubin led a
stand-off at the Marines headquarters in
Fort Bonifacio.
For both
incidents, Lim, Querubin and the former Marine
commandant, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, and several
military officers are facing court martial.
Bacarro
said that the military has no information that same
thing may happen again before, during or after the Edsa
celebration.
“We have
no information na may mangyayaring ganoon.
Everything is we can say normal,” said Bacarro.
He said
that last year, the Armed Forces indeed received
information on a planned coup d’etat.
“But
right now, wala tayong natatanggap na
information. Everything is normal, we have not received
any information leading to activities such as coup
d’etat or any destabilization effort,” he added.
The
Armed Forces was placed on red alert effective 8 a.m.
while the National Police was placed on heightened alert
beginning 6 a.m. Wednesday.
When the
highest alert level is raised, all leaves and furloughs
are cancelled and personnel are required to be on their
posts round the clock.
Director
Wilfredo Garcia, chief of the National Police
Directorate for Operations, issued a memorandum to all
regional and provincial directors nationwide to
“strengthen security measures of vital installations,
economic key points, places of convergence and other
probable targets and intensify intelligence
gathering-monitoring to preempt-thwart threat groups
from taking advantage of the situation.” |
