PNP, AFP show force for anti-government rally in Manila City

By Ronron
March 14, 2008

Thousands of government forces were placed on standby on Friday in the main camps of the police and military as part of security measures for the anti-government rally in Manila City.

This even as Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Sr. Supt. Nicanor Bartolome admitted that they have not received specific threat to the mass action at Liwasang Bonifacio by various groups that are against the current administration.

Bartolome said that about a thousand policemen from regional police offices arrived at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City starting Thursday night to augment the 3,000-strong Task Force Manila Shield of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Across the other side at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) headquarters, some 1,500 military men were placed on stand by at the grandstand of Camp Aguinaldo for their possible deployment if requested by the NCRPO.

While the NCRPO observed heightened alert status starting 6pm Thursday, the AFP National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM) raised its alert level to full status effective 8am yesterday (Friday), said NCRCOM chief Maj. Gen. Fernando Mesa.

Augmenting the 1,500 military men also are 14 tanks, more than 30 military trucks, a military jeep, and a military communication van.

Bartolome said the police augmentation force from Regions 1, 2, 3, 4-A and the Cordilleras was sought as part of their preparatory plans.

“If you plan, it is a must that you are always ahead of the situation,” he explained when asked why a need to reinforce the 3,000 elements of NCRPO who were deployed near the rally venue.

But he said the 1,000-strong augmentation force are just confined at Camp Crame and their deployment outside will only be made when the need arises.

Mesa said the NCRCOM came up with such security preparations to ensure that they are “ready to repel any power grab plot.”

“What is important is we are ready. We know that some groups are sympathetic to those conducting the rally so we are always ready,” he told reporters in a separate interview at Camp Aguinaldo.

No less than Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. inspected the fully-equipped military troops at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday afternoon, where he thanked them for “fulfilling their Constitutional mandate and following the chain of command always.”

For Teodoro, the threat to the stability of the Arroyo government has already waned, based on the failure of the attempt to unseat the President last November 29, 2007 by groups led by Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, and during the latest series of rallies in Makati City sparked by the NBN-ZTE deal scandal.

When asked if the trend is now leading to total disappearance of threats against the Arroyo government, Teodoro just said: “To me, you know, threats are dynamic. You cannot say that just because this day, there are none, there will be none in the future.”

“Our policy is whether or not these threats have waned, you prepare for any eventuality,” he added./DMS