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Malacañang said on Thursday that it will not declare a
state of emergency following what it merely called a
“situation” in a luxury hotel in Makati City where Sen.
Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim tried to
drum up public support for President Arroyo’s ouster.
In
between breaks in a continuing emergency meeting in
Malacañang convened by the Chief Executive shortly after
noon, Palace officials took turns assuring the public
that the government was on top of the situation and
expected it to be resolved swiftly since it had handled
even “more serious” cases in the past.
Asked
whether there is a need to declare a state of emergency,
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said in a Palace
briefing: “The President is not intending to declare a
state of emergency.”
Gonzalez
said that there may be a “connivance” between the two
officers and still unnamed civilians, as shown by the
Makati incident and the planned ouster rally against
Arroyo to be held on Friday.
“I had
information since yesterday that this has been designed
to form part of the planned action to be taken tomorrow
of the group Oust GMA Movement. It is quite clear that
there is here a connivance between these civilian groups
and these renegade soldiers,” he said.
Gonzalez
said that Lim, Trillanes and their guards who
sympathized with them would be charged for inciting to
rebellion.
National
Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said in another news
briefing that the government is verifying the possible
involvement of 15 to 20 organizations and civilian
personalities, including businessmen, but did not name
them as they are still under investigation.
He said
that there are “some surprising new names” who did not
figure in previous similar attempts but again declined
to name them as he did “not want people to be
unnecessarily labeled.”
Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino Rep. Rodolfo Antonino of
Nueva Ecija, chairman of the House Committee on Public
Order and Safety, said that the incident could be a
“test case” for the Human Security Act, since it
“certainly is an act of inciting to rebellion and, at
the very most, terrorism.”
“He had
taken over a five-star hotel with not only local
residents but also foreigners. They tied up the door of
the hotel, which prevented local residents and
foreigners from leaving the hotel and also the media,”
Antonino said.
Asked
how the President reacted to the incident, Press
Secretary Ignacio Bunye said: “The President is a
hands-on leader, so she returned to the Palace
immediately and convened a meeting. She started issuing
orders to the different parties concerned . . . .We have
faced more serious incidents before and the President
appeared very cool, very calm as she issued her
directives.”
Gonzales
admitted a lapse in the appreciation of some
intelligence reports, which could have prevented the
incident.
“I felt
very bad because when you get all sorts of reports, I
may have failed in appreciating the significance of some
reports because sometimes, when you become judgmental, I
really could not imagine during this time [that they
would] still [be] doing this,” he said.
On the
expression of support made by Lingayen Archbishop Oscar
Cruz for Trillanes’s actions, Environment Secretary Lito
Atienza said, “I would expect Church leaders to be very
responsible not to be part of such a call. Outside of
the rule of law, we can never justify this. This is
against the principle of Catholicism.”
During
the Palace briefings, Palace officials read statements
of support for the President and condemnation for the
Makati
incident from local government officials, congressmen
and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, and also featured
congressmen and local officials expressing support for
the Chief Executive.
The
League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) denounced the
takeover of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in
Makati.
Cutting
short its morning sessions at the Pryce Plaza Hotel here
on its second day of consultations where the first leg
of the caravan of the LCP started, the mayors in
attendance stated that they fully support the
administration of Arroyo and recognize her efforts in
leading the nation to economic recovery.
“Now
that we are on the road to development, with the peso
performing in its strongest and the stock market at its
highest, this political unrest would only plunge our
nation once more into economic instability,” the LCP
statement read.
In the
wake of the incident, a nationwide organization of
medical practitioners urged President Arroyo to initiate
a covenant of healing that would “surgically” uproot the
cause of disunity and instability in the country.
A solid
block of the Philippine Medical Association, Solid Bloc
of Cavite and Philippine Academy of Medical Specialists,
called on the people to exercise sobriety and good sense
of judgment against any violent takeover that would be
unconstitutional and only lead to more problems.
Proposing instead a program to “heal the nation,” they
diagnosed the current state of the country as “unwell,”
and this could continue to exacerbate day to day if no
proper action is made.
“The
state of health that we are referring to cannot be cured
by the usual prescriptions we dispense to our patients,
and none among us have been formally trained to conduct
the necessary ‘surgery’ the country requires,” said Heal
the Nation spokesman Ismael Mercado.
Mercado
likewise emphasized that medical training cannot be
applied to reverse the nation’s condition, making it
necessary to appeal to all Filipinos to act with a sense
of urgency to immediately address the problem.
Sen. Mar
Roxas II said that while good economic statistics
continue to adorn the headlines, these are hardly felt
by Juan de la Cruz. At the same time, the people’s right
to the rule of law is being violated by the government
itself through disappearances of activists and
journalists, the subversion of institutions and checks
and balances, and the suppressing of information on key
government undertakings and contracts.
Roxas
joined Sen. Noynoy Aquino in issuing a call for the
“observance of the rule of law by all sides; not just
Trillanes and Lim, but as well as the military and
police.”
Sen.
Panfilo Lacson on the other hand said, “While my
sympathy will always remain with the soldiers in Manila
Peninsula, I was not made part of their plan today so
there is nothing much I can say except to pray that the
crisis end up peacefully whichever way it is resolved.
The issues are valid to say the least, but questions
will surely be raised on the method employed.” (With B.
Fernandez, B. Enerio and B. Garcia Jr.) |
