INQUIRER | Activists storm Palace gates; 20 arrested

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Activists storm Palace gates; 20 arrested Tina Santos Rem Zamora Philippine Daily Inquirer August 20, 2009 MANILA, Philippines—Those pricey dinners left a bad taste—and an ooze of blood—in the mouth of student activists Wednesday. Militant youth groups denouncing the Arroyo administration’s “excessive” spending, including the costly restaurant meals that she and her party had during a recent visit to the United States, breached Malacañang gates on Wednesday and provoked a brief but violent clash with Palace guards. Authorities arrested at least 20 protesters out of the estimated 200 students who used side streets to sneak past a police outpost at the historic Mendiola Bridge and staged a lightning rally at Malacañang’s Gate 7. Witnesses said some students emerged bloodied in the mouth upon contact with blocking forces from the Manila Police District (MPD) and the Presidential Security Group (PSG). The demonstrators included members of Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students (LFS), Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP), and College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP). Arrested were students from Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), University of the Philippines (UP)-Diliman and a high school student. Over in minutes The students managed to hold a sit-in rally in front of Gate 7, an opening facing Mendiola, before breaking through at around 11 a.m. They were initially blocked by less than 10 MPD and PSG members. Within minutes, reinforcements increased the Palace guards to a phalanx of about 30. The dispersal lasted only about 10 minutes. The arrested students were first brought to Ospital ng Maynila for medical checkup, then later to the MPD headquarters on UN Avenue where they were detained on charges of illegal assembly. Interviewed two hours after the violent dispersal, SCMP chair Cristina Guevarra said 17 of her arrested colleagues suffered mild to serious physical injuries. Rally resumed Guevarra was leading about 50 protesters—or what remained of the original assembly—who by then had resumed their protest rally in front of the MPD compound, this time to demand the release of their peers. Guevarra identified the arrested students as Mark Gil Gamido (Anakbayan-Culiat High School); Likha Gaia Flores and Karl Villasenor (Anakbayan); Jessa Dulay (LFS); Yasmin Ongay, Charmaine Guevarra, Lia Torres (Anakbayan UP-Diliman); Absolom Eligio, Allan de Guzman, Warren Gutierrez, Michael Non (LFS UP-Diliman); Abriel Mansilungan (Kabataan Partylist-PUP); Giemma Canalis and Kimberly Salas (SCMP-PUP); Elvin Rillo (PUP); Lea Jamayan (LFS-PUP); Anna Usabel Manalang and Andrew Alejo (Anakbayan-PUP); Nida Grefaldo and Anton Perdigon (CEGP). ‘What maximum tolerance?’ Negotiations for the release of the 20 students were still ongoing at press time. “We just want her (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) to step down. We are here to condemn corruption amid so much poverty. Corruption is their response instead of doing something to alleviate Filipinos from poverty,” Guevarra told the Inquirer. “They suddenly hit us with truncheons the moment they saw us in Malacañang. I thought they were supposed to observe maximum tolerance,” Anakbayan-PUP chair Chaser Soriano added in Filipino. The PSG declined to comment on the violent dispersal. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde and deputy presidential spokesperson Anthony Golez did not reply to Inquirer’s calls. Under fire Malacañang has come under fire in the past two weeks over reports that lavish spending surrounded Ms Arroyo’s visit to the United States for a long-sought meeting with President Barack Obama. Church and opposition leaders have since slammed the President for extravagance and insensitivity amid widespread poverty in the country and the global economic crisis. Critics have pounced mainly on the $20,000 (about P1 million) dinner tab she and her entourage of mostly lawmakers picked up at the classy Le Cirque restaurant in New York and another dinner, costing the equivalent of P750,000, in Washington, DC. Apparently reeling from this public backlash, the Palace early this week canceled a plan to buy a new P1.2-billion presidential jet. With a report from TJ Burgonio

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Arroyo nearly declared martial law ---inquirer.net

WHAT WENT BEFORE

Arroyo nearly declared martial law

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:49:00 08/13/2009

MANILA, Philippines—On July 9, Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia told the Rotary Club of Manila that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could declare martial law should the campaign for Charter change fail.

“If they are unable to get the three-fourths vote necessary to amend the Constitution, their ... fallback position is to declare martial law,” he told an audience that included the ambassadors of Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Thailand, India and Pakistan.

De Venecia, a close Arroyo ally until he was removed as Speaker of the House in a Palace-backed coup last year, had earlier told Inquirer editors and reporters that Ms Arroyo came close to declaring martial law during the November 2007 siege of Peninsula Manila led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, and that he was asked by Malacañang at the time to seek US support.

He later corrected himself and said the plan to impose martial law was broached in 2005 at the height of the national crisis triggered by the “Hello Garci” election fraud scandal.

Intimate knowledge

On July 22, speaking before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz backed De Venecia’s statements.

“What I can say is that indeed, [Speaker De Venecia] has intimate knowledge of these events,” Cruz said, adding that he had also heard former Ambassador to the United States Albert del Rosario narrate on TV a similar version of events taking place “in the last quarter of 2005.”

De Venecia and Cruz cited similarities between the current national situation and that in 1972. Cruz noted that Ferdinand Marcos was also nearing the end of his term when he declared martial law; De Venecia warned that events such as the escalation of bombings and a failure of the 2010 elections could trigger a martial law declaration.

Early last month, bomb explosions rocked Jolo and the cities of Cotabato and Iligan, killing a total of eight people, including a year-old boy, and injuring scores of others.

Calibrated preemptive response

The “Hello Garci” controversy spawned not only the biggest threat to the legitimacy of the Arroyo administration but also three measures that led to fears of a second martial law era.

On June 6, 2005, in order to preempt an alleged opposition plot, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye played to reporters two CDs of purported taped conversations between Ms Arroyo and then Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on the rigging of the results of the May 2004 presidential polls.

Ms Arroyo subsequently apologized to the nation on TV, saying she was the woman talking to an election official whom she did not name. But she denied attempting to rig the election results, saying she was only anxious to protect her votes in light of the slow canvassing.

The revelation of the tapes led to Congress hearings and street protests. On Sept. 21, 2005, incidentally also the 33rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law, Malacañang announced a “calibrated preemptive response (CPR) in lieu of maximum tolerance” in dealing with protests without permits.

The announcement was made amid reports of purported destabilization attempts.

EO 464

A week later, Ms Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 464 barring government executives and police and military officials from testifying at Congress hearings without her consent.

It drew overwhelming opposition even from her allies in Congress.

Lawmakers said EO 464 could be part of the administration’s push for a unicameral Congress, or a means to maintain the loyalty of the military and the Cabinet to ensure Ms Arroyo’s political survival.

The opposition called it a manifestation of her “paranoia.”

Opposition and administration senators, along with other groups, questioned EO 464’s legality in the Supreme Court.

In January 2006, the five House committees investigating the “Hello Garci” controversy wrapped up work without resolving the issue. Parañaque City Rep. Roilo Golez blamed EO 464 for the failure of the House to get to the bottom of the case.

Presidential Proclamation 1017

On Feb. 24, 2006, during the week commemorating the 20th anniversary of Edsa I, Ms Arroyo signed Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 declaring a state of emergency nationwide and demanding obedience to all decrees and orders “promulgated by me personally.”
The proclamation resulted from the military’s discovery of an alleged plot by key officers to join protest marches on that day and break away from the chain of command.

On that day, University of the Philippines Prof. Randy David was picked up at a march marking the anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution.

Past midnight a day later, police raided the office of The Daily Tribune, a broadsheet critical of the Arroyo administration, and seized editorial materials.

In a bald warning, the Philippine National Police said it would take over any media organization that would not follow “standards set by the government.”

A number of protesters were arrested in the seven days that PP 1017 was in effect.

Supreme Court moves

On April 20, 2006, the Supreme Court, voting 14-0, shot down EO 464. But it declared constitutional Ms Arroyo’s right to bar executive officials from appearing during the question hour in both chambers of Congress. (She formally revoked the order only in March 2008.)

Five days later, the high court declared CPR unconstitutional by a vote of 13-0.

On May 3, 2006, it declared unconstitutional the arrest of protesters, the forcible breakup of rallies and the raid on the Tribune carried out in accordance with PP 1017.

Voting 11-3, the high court upheld the President’s power to declare a state of emergency, but ruled as illegal a clause in PP 1017 giving herself authority to issue decrees.

The high court assailed the proclamation, saying it evoked shades of Marcos’ PP 1081 which imposed martial law in 1972. Kate Pedroso and Eliza Victoria, Inquirer Research

Source: Inquirer Archives

Bishops still irked over Le Cirque dinner

Bishops still irked over Le Cirque dinner

By Christian V. Esguerra, Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:02:00 08/12/2009

Most Read

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang may have refused to apologize for the $20,000 dinner of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her entourage at the ritzy Le Cirque in New York, but Catholic bishops are not letting the issue die down.

Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, who champions the cause of landless farmers, Tuesday called on Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who purportedly picked up the tab, to donate the amount (or close to P1 million) to the impoverished.

“We can challenge those who paid for the dinner to also give the same amount to feed the poor,” Pabillo said.

The bishop said it was not right to use money—“whether government money or the money of any rich person”—in wasteful ways.

“Even if it was not the government but someone else, whoever shouldered the dinner tab has a responsibility because money is not only for ourselves but also for others. We are mere stewards,” he said.

Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani said the Aug. 2 dinner “really leaves a bad taste in the mouth, especially for those who have nothing to eat.”

“The Filipino people should tell them, ‘Mahiya naman kayo (You should be ashamed of yourselves),’” he said.

Bacani also said that while Malacañang’s nonchalance over the dinner was unacceptable, the stance was “characteristic of the present administration—the lack of transparency, confusing the issues, and just ignoring even legitimate criticism.”

“Even in their defense, they cannot accurately say who paid for the dinner,” he observed.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde claimed on Saturday that it was Romualdez who had paid the $20,000 bill reported by the New York Post. But on Monday, the lawmaker’s legal and media liaison officer said it was his brother, New York-based architect Daniel Romualdez, who had done so.

The Romualdezes are nephews of Imelda Marcos, widow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

‘Obvious story line’

In a briefing Tuesday at the Palace, Remonde assailed critics, particularly the media, for continuously raising questions about the dinner at Le Cirque.

Ms Arroyo flew to the United States on July 29 for a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House. The dinner was held on Aug. 2, a few hours before Ms Arroyo and her party embarked on the journey back to Manila to catch the wake of former President Corazon Aquino.

Remonde accused the media of playing up a picture of Ms Arroyo at a luxury dinner in New York while the majority of Filipinos lived in abject poverty.

“It’s so obvious how the story will go. The people are being angered by the idea that while so many are going hungry, the President and her officials are eating rich,” he said in Filipino. “I think that’s already too much.”

Remonde maintained that Ms Arroyo—whose wealth reportedly ballooned from P66.8 million in 2001 to P143.54 million in 2008—was not unaware of the hunger and poverty in the country.

“It’s very hypocritical for people to accuse the President of not being in touch with the hunger situation [when] it is [she] who has done the most in this country to address the problem of hunger,” he said.

Still no talk

Nevertheless, the relevant issues remained unanswered.

Remonde insisted it was Representative Romualdez who had paid for the dinner despite the statement of Nick Esmale, the latter’s legal and media liaison officer, that the generous hand was that of the lawmaker’s brother Daniel.

Malacañang has also yet to state what was on the menu that merited the $20,000 tab, beyond saying that the dinner was “simple.”

And the fact that Romualdez, an articulate lawmaker and a close ally of Ms Arroyo, has yet to speak on the matter is not helping the Palace any.

Remonde explained: “Not all people are gifted with the ability to speak before the media or microphones or reporters.”

He sought to put the controversy to rest, reiterating an earlier statement that the Palace would no longer “glamorize” the issue.

Told that the dinner was a matter of public interest, Remonde said: “That’s a matter of perspective.”

He said that while reporters had that view, “for the many, the media are just whipping up the controversy.”

French food

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who was with the President’s entourage but skipped the dinner at Le Cirque, said it was not all that lavish for “a presidential-level dinner.”

“That’s why some of the congressmen [in the entourage] said, ‘Hindi naman masyadong masarap (The food wasn’t that delicious),” she said, adding:

“That’s because it was French food. Only the rich and famous go to that place because it’s prohibitively expensive.”

Santiago, a former judge, raised legal points that tended to release Ms Arroyo from criminal or administrative liability arising from the dinner.

The senator said the question was whether the dinner was “manifestly excessive” or “nominal or insignificant.”

But this question has become academic, Santiago said, citing two reasons—the President’s immunity from criminal suit and her control of the House of Representatives.

“After all, an impeachment is not a judicial but a political process,” Santiago said.

She pointed out that Ms Arroyo enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution during her term of office and, thus, could not be charged criminally at the Office of the Ombudsman.

“Theoretically, she can be impeached for graft and corruption. But there were some representatives present at the dinner, and [they] would unite to dismiss an impeachment complaint in the House,” the senator said. With a report from Michael Lim Ubac