MANILA, 8 November 2003 — President Gloria Arroyo said yesterday that some groups were trying to overthrow her government illegally by capitalizing on a raging constitutional crisis.
She warned that her government would use the full force of the law to stop the groups that she did not identify.
“Once more, I call for national unity as I warn all attempts to undermine the republic through unlawful plots,” Arroyo said in a statement as thousands of supporters of jailed former President Joseph Estrada and of perennial coup plotter Sen. Gregorio Honasan took to the street in protest.
In front of the Philippine Stock Exchange building in the financial district of Makati, tghe marchers burned effigies of Arroyo and Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, who is at the center of an impeachment move by congressmen allied to business magnate Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
“We want to give a message to the business community that they should not repeat the conspiracy between Arroyo and Davide that they did against (former) President Joseph Estrada,” said Ronald Lumbao, leader of the People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP).
Debate has intensified over the bid to impeach the Davide over allegations he misused a judiciary development fund.
Arroyo, who faces a presidential election in six months, is under pressure to defuse the crisis which has shaken business confidence and sparked fears military opportunists could use the standoff as a pretext for a coup attempt.
“If anyone attempts to turn this controversy into an illegitimate bid for political power, let them be forewarned,” Arroyo said yesterday.
“We will preempt criminal conspiracies with the full force of the law,” said Arroyo, who survived a military rebellion in July.
This week, she placed the military on red alert, the highest of a three-tiered alert level of the armed forces, to head off possible “destabilization” attempts.
One of yesterday’s protest leaders, retired Col. Ernesto Macahiya, dismissed the destabilization talks as “ghost concoctions” of the military and police intelligence.
“Every time there is a rally, they always link it to destabilization,” said Macahiya, spokesman for the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc. (PGBI).
The PGBI is a faction of the Guardians association of retired and active military and police personnel that Senator Honasan leads.
Macahiya said the Makati rally, which snarled traffic along busy Ayala Avenue, was the first in a series of protests the PGBI and its allied groups would launch if the impeachment trial of Davide would not push through. “We should search for the truth through constitutional means,” Macahiya said, referring to allegations Davide misused the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).
Macahiya also criticized the president’s move to quell the standoff between Davide and his opponents at the House of Representatives through her tripartite covenant.
Pro-impeachment congressmen are expected to send Davide’s case to the Senate when they resume sessions on Monday.
If the impeachment process is launched, Davide has to face a trial in the Senate and could lose his job.
Arroyo has proposed that the lower House of Representatives drop the impeachment complaint in return for the Supreme Court opening its financial accounts to legislators for inspection.
Davide has previously refused this compromise and Arroyo’s mediation effort had not made much headway.
More than 80 members of the 226-member House of Representatives had signed a petition to impeach Davide — more than the one third majority or 76 signatures required.
But anti-impeachment legislators aligned to Arroyo are trying to influence House members not to attend the session on Monday to deny a quorum for at least 114 members to be present, sources said.
