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Ex-Philippine official in standoff

Young children touch a soldier's machine gun yesterday as six truckloads of troops are dispatched to a Philippine Catholic seminary where a former intelligence officer was holed up in defiance of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. PHOTO: AFP

A dismissed Philippine official yesterday declared he wouldn't let police take him alive from a Roman Catholic seminary where he has sought refuge after accusing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of rigging last year's election.

The standoff heightened political tensions that had started to ebb over the weekend when large anti-government crowds failed to show up in support of Samuel Ong, former deputy head of the Justice Department's investigating agency.

Ong sought refuge in the Manila seminary after telling a news conference Friday that he has wiretapped recordings on which Arroyo purportedly talks to an election official about ensuring a 1-million-vote margin over her closest rival in May last year. The government claims the tapes are doctored. Ong had called on the public and the church to protect him, claiming he feared for his life and arrest.

Troops and riot police took positions outside the seminary and at key access points to the capital to keep out anti-government protesters from nearby provinces amid what the government has called a deliberate destabilization effort.

"It's a political tele-series, I think. People are asking how it would end, when in fact we're just in episode three of a maybe 15-episode thing."

Segundo Romero, a professor at the University of the Philippines

But there was no sign of deep military unrest or the large crowds which gathered for peaceful "people power" revolts that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001.

Ong pressed his allegations Monday and asked for public support.

"I will not allow myself to be arrested alive," Ong told DZBB radio by phone.

"I did not come all the way to the house of God only to tell a lie. Believe me, the one sitting in Malacanang [presidential palace] did not win as president," he said.

Lawmakers said they plan to open an investigation into the alleged wiretaps this week.

Ong said a military intelligence agent who was involved in wiretapping Arroyo, Sergeant Vidal Doble, has also voluntarily sought refuge in the seminary. The military alleged that Doble was being held against his will and deployed troops and two armed personnel carriers around the seminary walls yesterday.

The election fraud allegations -- along with an ongoing Senate probe of allegations that her family pocketed illegal gambling payoffs -- have sent Arroyo's popularity to its lowest levels since winning the bitterly contested election.

Arroyo is also grappling with crushing poverty, a huge budget deficit, high oil prices and persistent allegations of massive government corruption.

A tired-looking Arroyo appeared before a sparse Independence Day crowd Sunday and pleaded for unity, but warned she was prepared to use her power to protect democracy and her reforms.

In a country often buffeted by political turmoil, many analysts were unsure how the current storm would end.

"It's a political tele-series, I think," Professor Segundo Romero of the state-run University of the Philippines told ABS-CBN television. "People are asking how it would end, when in fact we're just in episode three of a maybe 15-episode thing."

Meanwhile, Philippine troops killed 14 communist guerrillas in a battle north of the capital Manila, the military said yesterday.

The troops were on routine patrol Sunday when they chanced upon a group of New People's Army (NPA) rebels near the town of Mexico, some 80km north of the capital, a military statement said.

A four-hour gunfight followed, leading to the rebel casualties. Thirteen high-powered assault rifles were recovered, the statement said.

It was the biggest loss suffered by the NPA in a single firefight with government forces since defense secretary Avelino Cruz vowed last month to crush the communist insurgents in the next six to 10 years.

The 8,000-strong NPA is the armed faction of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging an armed campaign since 1969, and is on the US' list of terrorist organizations.
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