Large contingents of military and riot police were deployed at a pro-democracy shrine yesterday to prevent possible anti-government protests that could worsen the peso's slide, officials said.
The troops, deployed late Tuesday, closed off traffic in a lane fronting the EDSA Shrine, along Manila's busiest highway, said Reynaldo Velasco, police chief for the capital.
The religious shrine was the site of historic "people power" revolutions that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and president Joseph Estrada two years ago and has become a key venue for pro- and anti-government gatherings.
Velasco said the troops were deployed to monitor and prevent groups planning to take advantage of tensions arising from a failed July 27 military mutiny.
"There are various groups which want to ride in the after-effect of the July 27 uprising. We won't allow that to happen," Velasco told DZRH radio, citing intelligence reports.
The groups could include followers of Estrada, ousted in January 2001 over allegations of massive corruption which he has denied. He is detained while being tried on a capital offense of economic plunder.
Estrada's wife and some of his children have been implicated by government investigators in the failed military uprising.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero said the troop deployment was aimed at controlling any protest and the public should not be alarmed because there were no reports of a brewing coup.
Security has been strengthened around the riverside Malacanang presidential palace, a nearby major oil depot and important buildings which already were under tight guard due to possible terrorist attacks, Velasco said.
Chief Superintendant Rolando Sacramento, head of Manila's Eastern Police District, said he has deployed more than 200 police at strategic checkpoints leading to the EDSA Shrine, while the military has about 150 troops guarding the site.
They are expected to remain until tomorrow to prevent a plan by some 10,000-15,000 Estrada supporters from the People's Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) to gather at the shrine yesterday and today, Sacramento said.
"So far, none of them have been able to go near the shrine," he said.
Police in Manila's Makati financial district have blocked about 100 PMAP demonstrators about two blocks from a building where Arroyo's controversial husband Mike has an office.
PMAP was one of the groups that led a bloody May 1, 2001, attempt to storm the presidential palace. The riots culminated several days of protests at the EDSA Shrine by Estrada supporters angry over his arrest.
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