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.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in