The Philippine government has filed charges of incitement to sedition against a newspaper publisher and two of her columnists for their attacks on President Gloria Arroyo, the publisher said yesterday.
The charges were filed against Ninez Cacho-Olivares, publisher of the Daily Tribune newspaper, and columnists Ike Seneres and Herman Tiu-Laurel, the newspaper reported on its front page.
Justice Department officials confirmed that charges of incitement to sedition had been filed against officials of the Tribune but would not give details.
Cacho-Olivares said in her newspaper that Arroyo was merely "sore" at her for her criticism of the government.
The government had posted several policemen at the Tribune's headquarters last week after Arroyo declared a state of emergency to foil an alleged coup attempt against her government.
Arroyo lifted the state of emergency on Friday after deciding that the threat against her government had receded. The policemen at the Tribune have been withdrawn.
However a leftist congressman was arrested, three police and military commanders have been relieved of their posts and more than a dozen opposition figures are still being hunted for their alleged role in the plot.
Meanwhile, a military spokesman said yesterday that communist guerrillas had infiltrated the Philippine capital and were ready to support the foiled coup against Arroyo
However, the claim was rejected by the communists.
Major Bartolome Baccaro said in a radio interview that infiltration was part of an alliance between communist insurgents and military rebels that prompted Arroyo to declare the emergency last week.
"There was an understanding of these groups... they had a common objective of overthrowing President Gloria Arroyo," he said.
The communist New People's Army (NPA) had infiltrated guerrillas into Manila while rebel forces would mount the coup, he said.
"They were ready to move in support if needed. They wanted to escalate whatever happened in relation to the coup [attempt]," Baccaro said.
Interviewed on the same radio show, NPA spokesman Gregorio Rosal denied that there was an alliance between the military rebels and the communist insurgents, saying that "the alliance of the military and the communists ... is not true. There is no conspiracy. There is no coup plot."
He said the communists had not abandoned their principle of conducting a Maoist "protracted people's war," and had not embraced the idea of seizing power through a coup.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the