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.
PHOTO: AFP
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.
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.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS