Five-hour curfew ends with close to 900 accosted

By Ronron
November 30, 2007

The Philippine National Police (PNP) no longer re-imposed on Friday night until Saturday morning, and will no longer do so in the coming days the five-hour curfew it implemented the other night in Metro Manila, Region 3 and Region IV-A.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Marius Corpus said this is because the authorities no longer see any “serious threat” against the seat of government following the takeover of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the Magdalo Group and other civilian sympathizers.

“We believe this curfew will no longer be re-imposed. So we are back to normal,” PNP chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. said in a separate news conference Friday at Camp Crame.

The PNP, supported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, implemented the curfew from 12 midnight Thursday until 5am Friday to limit the movements of possible supporters of Trillanes and Lim.

During the five-hour implementation of the curfew, the PNP has accosted a total of 872 violators from the three regions.

The most number of violators (385) came from Region IV-A, with the following breakdown: Cavite – 92; Rizal – 195; Laguna – 94; and Quezon – 4;

It was followed by the National Capital Region, with 246. The breakdown is as follows: Quezon City – 93; Nothern Police area – 50; Manila City – 14; Eastern Police area – 45; and Southern Police area – 44.

Finally, 241 were accosted in Region III, with the following breakdown: Bataan – 236; and Zambales – 5.

Razon said none of those accosted were found to be sympathizers of Trillanes.

“They were not just aware of the curfew,” he said.

The accosted persons, he said, have all been sent home after 5 am yesterday.

“We had a very peaceful evening while there was a curfew. There was no untoward incident that happened,” Razon said.

With the normalization of the situation, the PNP downgraded its red alert status to the normal mode by 6pm yesterday, said PNP spokesman Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao, Jr.

“Since the situation has improved at the close of the National Hero’s Day, we are back to normal status,” Pagdilao said.

The PNP had raised its alert status at 11 am last Thursday when the incident at Makati City happened. It was followed with the same action by the military effective 12 noon.

But military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said they are still maintaining its red alert status as of last night.

Pagdilao, on the other hand, said they will raise their alert again on Saturday morning because of the departure of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Spain.

“It’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to raise alert level when the President leaves for abroad,” he said./DMS