Tens of thousands flocked to a religious rally in Manila's seaside Rizal Park yesterday in a show of defiance against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her supporters in the lower house of Congress.
Police estimated up to 50,000 people attended the peaceful gathering, a fraction of the hundreds of thousands expected.
But numbers were expected to swell later when charismatic Catholic group El Shaddai holds a vigil.
"We don't expect any violence because these people come here to pray and sing," one officer said.
Catholic bishops had called for a "Watch and Pray" rally after the House of Representatives tried to push through changes to the 1987 Constitution and create a UK-style parliamentary system, a move that critics said was designed to extend Arroyo's powers.
The Catholic prelates' opposition forced the lower house to abandon its plan earlier this week but the Church decided to push on with an open-air Mass.
"We need the gift of unity but that unity cannot be had except only through sacrificing ambitions," Manila's influential archbishop, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, told the congregation, which included prominent opposition politicians.
Although few Filipinos would agree that the US-style presidential system of government works well, the lower house's hasty move sparked alarm.
Analysts, however, do not see yesterday's rally as the start of a campaign to oust Arroyo -- who has survived two impeachment bids and one coup attempt -- because the small middle class is fed up with political turbulence.
"It's not a rally to revolution," said Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. "Nobody should be afraid of prayer."
``The great message today is that the government has been warned that if it pushes its luck too far, the people now will react,'' said Joe Dizon, a left-leaning Roman Catholic priest and vocal Arroyo critic.
The government still tried to dissuade people from attending the gathering, putting the capital on red-alert and warning that communist rebels might attack and militant leftist groups could try to provoke violence.
"Let us pray that the nation moves forward and that this event and others like it do not fall victim to political intrigue and manipulation," Arroyo said in a statement.
Arroyo has argued that the Constitution needs to be updated to turn the current US-style presidential form of government with a two-chamber legislature -- which has caused gridlocks and prevented economic development -- to a unicameral parliament led by a prime minister.
Opposition politicians, however, said her plan was aimed at diverting public attention from the many scandals plaguing her presidency and to cement her hold on power.
An attempt to amend the Constitution was derailed late last month when the Supreme Court ruled against a petition calling for a referendum on the issue.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS