Philippine security forces were on alert for anti-government demonstrations expected on Independence Day yesterday, but President Gloria Arroyo said she was not cowed by threats against her rule.
Marines were guarding highways around the capital, while riot police were on standby at vital installations, officials said.
Left-wing groups and those allied with the political opposition threatened mass protests on Independence Day to call for Arroyo's ouster.
PHOTO: EPA
However anti-government rallies on Saturday failed to draw the mass support organizers had hoped for. About 2,000 people from various opposition groups converged on the Manila post office in what was a relatively peaceful demonstration.
They planned to regroup late yesterday afternoon for mass outside a Manila Catholic seminary where an ex-government intelligence officer had sought refuge.
The officer, Samuel Ong, on Friday came out in public as the source of controversial taped conversations between Arroyo and an elections commisioner conspiring to cheat in last year's polls. He said his life was in danger.
Opposition senators have called on Arroyo to resign amid the allegations she rigged last year's presidential polls to beat Fernando Poe, the country's most popular movie star and a friend of deposed president Joseph Estrada.
Poe died of natural causes in December, while Estrada, whom Arroyo replaced in 2001 after a military-backed popular revolt ousted him, remains in detention over corruption charges.
The president has resisted the calls for her resignation, and called for unity.
"I am calling on everyone to do away with dirty politics and focus our energies to improve the economy," Arroyo said in a speech to mark the country's independence from Spanish rule 107 years ago.
"My countrymen, the flag is the symbol of power and determination. Mark it in stone, I will show this power and determination to uphold democracy and guide the country in the right direction."
Arroyo's family members have also been accused of accepting bribes from operators of an illegal numbers game called jueteng, the same allegations that were the basis for Estrada's impeachment and ouster.
"The president should explain to the public once and for all who the persons are in the tape," said Joe Dizon, a prominent priest who gave Ong the sanctuary.
"The church's position is that it will give sanctuary to anyone who is in danger," he said, adding that he expected police to allow protesters to peacefully converge at the seminary.
At a reception for diplomats on Saturday Arroyo vowed to maintain stability and asked for their support.
She noted that she had worked hard to bring the country "back on the world map" and took her role "very seriously."
"I have felt the political heat, but I'm still in the kitchen. I'm still in the kitchen because that's where I belong, to continue to make the tough choices to turn this economy around and no one will deter me from that mission," she said.
She accused her critics of creating the image that the country was "nothing more than a private sandbox for political intrigue."
This view, she said, was "dangerous and irresponsible" as she challenged the opposition to present a viable alternative to her leadership.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver