Philippines says Arroyo, Estrada were plot targets

Philippines says Arroyo, Estrada were plot targets

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippine government said on Friday opposition politicians accused of inciting violent protests plotted to kill both President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ex- leader Joseph Estrada and take power themselves.

But one of the accused politicians denied any intention of using violence to overthrow the government.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told Reuters the government believed opposition politicians tried to use Tuesday's violent march against Arroyo by thousands of supporters of the detained Estrada as a means to take power.

Arroyo declared a state of rebellion -- two constitutional steps short of martial law -- after the attack on the Malacanang presidential palace. Four people died in clashes between protesters and security forces.

The government has ordered the arrest of about a dozen opposition politicians it accuses of inciting the protesters, who gathered at a Manila religious shrine after Estrada's arrest on corruption charges last week.

Asked whether there had been plans to kill Arroyo and Estrada, who was moved from a military hospital to a maximum security detention center at the height of the crisis, Golez said: "We have some documents to support that."

"When the march started, the decision was to immediately get him out of the (hospital)," Golez said. Intelligence reports had been compiled based on conversations with opposition figures in the days leading up to the march, he said.

"There was no intention of re-installing the former president," he said.

Asked whether Arroyo believed there had been a plot to kill her and Estrada, presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao told Reuters: "Yes, definitely."

Golez said security forces would remain on alert but the government was not expecting more trouble. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the military was firmly behind Arroyo.

"President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is now firmly in the saddle, the president is in full control and there is no threat to the stability...of this democracy," Reyes told reporters.

Under the state of rebellion, authorities have the power to make arrests without a warrant and groups of five people or more have been banned from gathering outside Malacanang palace.

Arroyo hopes to lift the state of rebellion on Monday.

Opposition Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, who went into hiding after Tuesday's protests, denied any intention to overthrow the government.

"I am categorically saying that I have no plans whatsoever to engage in any violent tactics to overthrow this government or any government," Honasan told the dzMM radio station.

A former military man Honasan was implicated in some half a dozen failed coups between 1986 and 1992.

Manila's influential Roman Catholic church praised Arroyo for the way she responded to the challenge to her rule.

"Less than what you did would have been weakness. More than that would be authoritarianism," Cardinal Jaime Sin said in a letter to Arroyo which was released to the media.

At least four of the opposition politicians ordered arrested are candidates in May 14 upper house Senate elections, Arroyo's first big electoral test since she took over from Estrada.

The polls are for 13 places in the 24-member Senate, the entire 262-member House of Representatives and thousands of provincial posts in the country of some 75 million people.

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who is seeking re-election, and former ambassador to the United States Ernesto Maceda are already in custody. They filed writs in the Supreme Court on Thursday challenging their arrest.

Police say at least two of those being sought, Honasan and former police chief and Senate candidate Panfilo Lacson, have gone into hiding.

Estrada, a former movie star who enjoys wide support among the urban poor, is being held with his son Jinggoy and denies any wrongdoing. One of the charges he faces, economic plunder, is punishable by life in prison or death.

Philippine markets have broadly welcomed what has been perceived as Arroyo's firm response to the violence.