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Possible coup in Philippines...

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  • Possible coup in Philippines...

    http://www.philstar.com/philstar/News200602160404.htm

    Tanks at Palace stir coup rumors

    The Philippine Star 02/16/2006

    The arrival of battle tanks at the Malacañang grounds early yesterday morning triggered new coup rumors.

    But Palace authorities were quick to clarify the presence of the tanks — accompanied by a truckload of heavily armed soldiers — on the Palace grounds before 4 a.m. yesterday was an authorized troop movement and should not be a cause for alarm.

    Led by three Simba-type tanks, the military armored assets came all the way from Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac, home of the Philippine Army’s Light Armor Regiment (PALAR).

    Capt. Ramon Zagala, spokesman for the military’s National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM), said the tanks and the truckload of soldiers belong to the elite Presidential Security Group (PSG).

    Zagala said the PSG troops had just returned from daylong armored and infantry training exercises at Crow Valley in Camp O’ Donnell.

    "This is an authorized troop movement. There is no reason to fear," Zagala assured the public.


    "They (the PSG troops) left for Crow valley (in Tarlac) for test-firing training on Tuesday. They are not reinforcements," Zagala added.

    Aside from the PSG, the NCRCOM in Metro Manila forms part of the national government’s first line of defense.

    Reports of unauthorized troop movements from Northern Luzon to Metro Manila spread on Tuesday, bolstering talk of an impending coup.

    ---
    Simbas are wheeled APCs...
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Simbas are wheeled APCs...
    Reporters like to call any armored vehicle a "tank". Same way anything bigger than a hunting rifle is a "machine gun".
    Last edited by Wraith601; 17 Feb 06,, 01:19.

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    • #3
      OV-10s are bombers and S-211s are jet fighters as well...
      To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

      Comment


      • #4
        not again Even after training with Americans for so long they dont seem to change
        A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

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        • #5
          I'd be extremely surprised if this happens...
          - Discuss the latest news, share your opinions

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          • #6
            Arroyo declares emergency
            Friday, February 24, 2006 (Manila):

            President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency on Friday as she struggled with a reported coup plot and a possible repeat of the popular revolts that ousted two of her predecessors.

            Clashes erupted as police used water cannons to disperse about 5,000 protesters.

            The military barricaded its camps to keep troops from joining the demonstrations and detained an army general allegedly involved in the takeover plot.

            Arroyo, who survived two earlier coup attempts, said her action was sparked by ongoing efforts by the political opposition, along with both the extreme left and the extreme right, to bring down the elected government.

            "I am declaring a state of emergency because of the clear threat to the nation," a defiant Arroyo said in a taped, nationally televised statement.

            "This is my warning against those who threaten the government: the whole weight of the law will fall on your treason. You are unhinging the economy from its strengthening pillars."

            History of restiveness

            She claimed the military had quashed an effort by some military officers and their men to launch a coup. The military has played strong roles in the two "people power" revolts and has a recent history of restiveness.

            "There were a few who tried to break from the armed forces chain of command, to fight the civilian government and establish a regime outside the constitution," Arroyo said. "We crushed this attempt.

            "As commander in chief, I control the situation," said Arroyo, who held a pre-dawn emergency meeting of her national security council as the crisis threatened to spiral out of control. "My countrymen, I ask all of you to remain calm."

            She stopped short of declaring martial law, a sensitive issue in a country where Marcos used it to rule by decree.

            National security

            Her chief of staff, Mike Defensor, said the declaration will not include a curfew but does ban rallies, allows arrest without a warrant, permits the president to call in the military to intervene and lets her take over facilities including media outlets that may affect national security.

            The Philippine stock market and the Peso both plunged after the declaration.

            US State Department spokesperson Janelle Hironimus said: "We are monitoring the situation carefully. We firmly support the rule of law and constitutional government. Violence should be avoided."

            Military chiefs said they backed Arroyo. They arrested an army general, who leads an elite special forces unit, for alleged involvement in a coup plot and ensured that a marine colonel was in his barracks.

            "We have reduced the threat," army chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga said. "We cannot say that it has been stopped."

            Red alert

            An unspecified number of people were also taken into custody, and police were seeking eight to 10 more, said Arroyo chief of staff Defensor.

            Already-tight security was bolstered in the capital. The government canceled rally permits and told schools to call off classes, aiming to keep the opposition from exploiting the scheduled demonstrations commemorating the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolt that ousted Marcos.

            Extra barbed wire and shipping containers were set up on roads leading to Malacanang, the presidential palace, and only essential staff was allowed in.

            Checkpoints appeared around the capital. Media were barred from the main military headquarters, Camp Aguinaldo, where reinforcements arrived in eight armored personnel carriers.

            An armored personnel carrier sat outside the marines' camp, with a truckload of marines in full battle gear nearby.

            Police were already on a nationwide red alert as widespread reports of a coup plot have circulated for more than a week.

            Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon has said 14 junior officers were identified as being involved in a plot that included establishing a revolutionary government after Arroyo was forcibly removed and abolishing "democratic institutions."

            The unusual security measures included efforts to shift former President Joseph Estrada, ousted by a second "people power" revolt in 2001, from a hospital where he was taken for eye surgery on Friday back to house detention. He has been on trial for alleged corruption. Estrada refused to leave the hospital.

            Arroyo, who succeeded Estrada in January 2001, survived three impeachment bids in September, when her dominant allies in the House of Representatives used a technicality to block complaints of alleged massive corruption and vote-rigging. Opposition groups have continued to call for her resignation. (AP)

            http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmor...gency&id=85153
            A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

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