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An antigovernment rally drew some 13,000 people to
Makati City, the country’s financial hub. Police estimates on the
crowd size were lower at about 10,000.
People were brought to the
streets by the recent charges of overpricing and multimillion-dollar
kickbacks in the controversial national broadband deal. A Senate
probe into that project implicated the President’s husband and a
key ally, but they have denied the charges.
The rally, which started around 3
p.m., seemed peaceful. By 6 p.m., the demonstration appeared to have
turned into a public concert with rock bands performing on a stage
set up near the monument of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.
Lawyer Adel Tamano, spokesman of
the United Opposition, said the rally organizers did not expect a
big attendance but were optimistic of public reaction to the current
political situation besetting the country.
“The moral outrage of the
public shows that the people still care about this government,”
Tamano said.
United Opposition President and
Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati City said the rally was apolitical,
which explained why no politician spoke on stage. The presence of
ordinary people is more important than the political figures who
attended the protest, he said.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye
said the Palace expects future rally attendances to progressively
wane, because “the people are tired of destabilization. They
want peace and want to see the continuous progress of the
economy.”
Securing the protesters
To secure the Makati rally,
military rushed in more troops and armored vehicles to Metro
Manila at dawn on Friday.
At least six armored personnel
carriers, two Scorpion tanks and seven truckloads of soldiers and
Humvees arrived at Camp Aguinaldo, the Armed Forces headquarters.
Three helicopters hovered above the rally site.
The troops and armored assets
reinforced the military’s National Capital Regional Command, which
went on red-alert Wednesday evening, two days ahead of the rally.
The command said the alert level
was raised based on information that communist rebels might try to
infiltrate the ranks of the protesters and agitate people to commit
violent actions.
The Metro Manila police chief,
Maj. Gen. Fernando Mesa, said the additional troop and armored
assets came from the Light Armored Division based in Camp
O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac.
The Philippine National Police
also placed its forces, particularly in Metro Manila and outlying
provinces, on heightened alert.
National police chief, Director
General Avelino Razon Jr., said the raising of their alert level
status was in connection with the rally and alleged assassination
attempts against President Arroyo.
He added that the heightened
alert status will remain in place until they see that the situation
is necessary for them to order a downgrading of the alert level.
--James Konstantin Galvez, Anthony A.
Vargas and AFP
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