Thursday, July 07, 2005

Tinapa on Mike Arroyo's no-show at the Erap Trial

From Tina Panganiban Perez:

first gentleman mike arroyo was a no-show at the plunder trial of erap at the sandiganbayan this morning. fg returned to manila from hong kong last night, presumably to appear as a witness. but only his lawyer showed up - and only to inform the court that he'll be filing a motion to quash subpoena. the lawyer sez fg's testimony is irrelevant as he has nothing to do with erap's plunder case.

the defense had summoned fg as its witness. they want to grill fg on his media interviews where he allegedly said that as early as jan 2000, they had plotted with chavit singson to grab power from erap.

nagplano sila long before to grab power and they were ready to resort to violence to get what mike wanted for his wife and therefore, himself. - atty rene saguisag

masyado namang irrelevant ito. papano naman dapat ma-subpoena dito si first gentleman, si atty arroyo? napakalayo e. - atty jesus santos

Matagal na nating alam ang mga interviews ni Mike Arroyo re using violence to oust Erap.

Here's my first post back in 2002 on the issue. And below are the excerpts on Mike Arroyo's interview with Nick Joaquin in the Philippine Graphic (3/5/2001):

"Chavit Singson had Plan B involving elements of the military to strike the first blow. They would kindle the spark by withdrawing from the government, and one by one others would follow: Class '71 would also withdraw, then Class '72, and so forth. But General de Villa warned that the timing had to be precise because one untimely move against the government and the military would automatically defend it. The move must be made at what De Villa called a 'defining moment.'

One wonders what could have happened if Erap did not step down from power and hand over the presidency to Mrs. Arroyo. Here's more from Mike Arroyo:

"Our group there was a back-up strike force. In fact, it was our group that won over to our side the PNP first. If Panfilo Lacson had resisted, he and his men would have been repelled: there would have been bloodshed, but not on EDSA. In every place where Erap loyalists had a force, we had a counter-force to face it, with orders to shoot. And not only in Metro Manila. Carillo had already been sent to the provinces; and in Nueva Ecija, for instance, we had Rabosa. This was a fight to the finish. That's why those five days that Erap was demanding were so important. He was counting on counter-coups and baliktaran."

Uhmmm... "Constitutional" ba ito, Cory Aquino?

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