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Stories
Philippines'
Estrada ready to accept poll defeat (4 June
2010)
Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, in remarks broadcast on Friday, said he was ready to concede defeat in the May election, but will wait for Congress to confirm Senator Benigno Aquino III as the country's next leader. Estrada trails Aquino by about 5.5 million votes in the official tally by Congress, consistent with unofficial tallies released by the election commission after the election, with around 1.5 million votes still to be canvassed. The number of votes to be counted is greater than lawmakers had earlier said, but still not enough to change the outcome. They will be tallied on Monday and Congress expects to proclaim the president and the vice president on Monday or Tuesday. Estrada, who was forced from office in 2001 and subsequently imprisoned and convicted on plunder charges only to be pardoned weeks later, said he was ready to assist the new administration. "If they will need my help to lift our countrymen from poverty, I'm more than willing to help in whatever capacity," Estrada told ABS-CBN television network in London, where he is to attend the school graduation of his 20-year-old daughter. Margaux Salcero, Estrada's spokeswoman, said the outcome would not be challenged despite reports of fraud and problems with automated voting machines used for the first time. "President Estrada is no longer inclined to file any protest. He will respect whatever final outcome is pronounced by the Joint Canvassing Committee in Congress," she said. An uncontested result would help ensure a smooth transition of power, and would allow Aquino to appoint his cabinet and outline his agenda before he takes office on June 30. The contest for vice presidency much closer with Estrada's running mate, Jejomar Binay, ahead by more than 640,000 votes over Aquino's partner, Senator Manuel Roxas. 1998 LANDSLIDE Estrada said he felt vindicated by getting nearly 10 million votes to finish second among the nine presidential candidates. "I am thanking all those who supported and trusted me," he said. "In spite of all the accusations against me that led me to prison, I'm thankful to the Lord and second to the Filipino people because they did not believe in these lies against me." Estrada won a landslide victory in the presidential polls in 1998, but was forced from power in 2001 by an army-backed popular uprising over allegations of corruption. He was arrested and briefly held in a detention facility, before spending six years under house arrest at one of his villas while he was on trial. In 2007, an anti-graft court convicted him of plunder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, but Estrada was granted clemency weeks later by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who had replaced him as president in 2001. Reuters Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page 12 Dead as Muslim Militants Attack Philippine City (13 April 2010) Muslim militants disguised as policemen and soldiers detonated bombs and opened fire Tuesday in a series of coordinated attacks in a southern Philippine city, triggering clashes that killed at least 12 people. About 25 Abu Sayyaf militants were involved in the attacks in Isabela city on the island province of Basilan, one of the most daring operations by the al-Qaida-linked group in recent months, regional military commander Lt. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said. The dead included three marines and three militants, including an Abu Sayyaf commander identified as Bensar Indama, who wore a police uniform. A policeman and five civilians were also killed, including one who died in a hospital in nearby Zamboanga city after being airlifted from Basilan, Dolorfino said. Nine people were wounded by the blasts and gunfire, including two militants who were captured, he said. Isabela is one of two Christian regions on predominantly Muslim Basilan, the birthplace of the Abu Sayyaf, which has long been blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organization because of its involvement in kidnappings, bombings and other acts of banditry. American counterterrorism troops based in a military camp in Isabela, about 550 miles (880 kilometers) south of Manila, were unaffected by the attacks and provided intelligence to help troops pursue the Abu Sayyaf gunmen, Rear Adm. Alex Pama said. The attacks began just after the morning rush hour when a bomb in a van exploded and damaged a grandstand in a sports center. Another bomb attached to a motorcycle went off an hour later at the back of a Roman Catholic cathedral, where five cars were damaged. A third explosive was found near the residence of a local judge and detonated by troops, Dolorfino said. Army, police and marines rapidly swarmed into the city and engaged the militants, who split into at least three groups as they withdrew. The gunbattles sparked panic and sent passers-by fleeing for cover. Pama, who heads a counterterrorism force, said the militants may have intended to detonate additional bombs and apparently tried but failed to take hostages before fleeing. ''They had a big plan, a major attack that we foiled,'' Pama said. ''If they intended to carry out a Mumbai-style attack, then it backfired,'' Pama told The Associated Press, referring to the November 2008 attacks in India's financial capital by 10 gunmen who stormed two luxury hotels, a Jewish center and a train station. After the first bombing at the sports complex, marines responded but were met by sniper fire that killed three, marine commandant Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban said. ''The marines did not know where the snipers were firing when they were ambushed and that led to the death of three marines,'' Sabban told The AP. Pama said witnesses reported seeing a notorious Abu Sayyaf commander, Puruji Indama, blamed for kidnappings and beheadings, but he managed to escape. Puruji is a brother of Bensar, who was killed by troops, Pama said. Government troops pursued the attackers and caught up with one group in Isabela's outskirts, sparking a brief clash and enabling the seizure of a van used by the gunmen, Dolorfino said. Security forces immediately set up checkpoints in Isabela and nearby towns. Military and police also strengthened security in nearby Zamboanga city, which has been hit by deadly bombings blamed on the Abu Sayyaf. The Abu Sayyaf is the smaller of at least four Muslim groups fighting for a separate homeland in the predominantly Catholic nation's south for decades. The government has dismissed the Abu Sayyaf as a bandit group crippled by relentless U.S.-backed military offensives. But the Abu Sayyaf, estimated to have more than 390 fighters, has periodically surprised authorities with high-profile attacks and is still considered a major security menace. In February, militants raided a Basilan village, killing 11 people, including four children, in the wake of the recent killing of an Abu Sayyaf commander and the arrest of two key members. Government forces had been told to be on alert for reprisal attacks. New York Times Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page Foreign election observers to visit Philippines (22 March 2010) A
delegation from Europe, Asia and the United
States will visit the Philippines in May to
observe the conduct of the country's first
automated polls. Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page MANILA- ONE of two Chinese men who spent more than three months as a hostage of Al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants in the southern Philippines died on Monday just days after walking free, police said. Oscar Lu, 51, died of kidney failure three days after his ordeal at the hands of Abu Sayyaf captors on the remote island of Basilan ended with him being rushed to hospital in extremely bad health, police said. 'Lu has died of kidney failure. They were famished and extremely dehydrated when they were recovered' last Friday, regional police chief Felizardo Serapio told reporters. Abu Sayyaf militants abducted Lu and Michael Tan, 27, both illegal Chinese immigrants, along with a third employee of Hitech Woodcraft Corp. on Basilan on November 10. The Abu Sayyaf is a small band of militants fighting for a Muslim state in the southern Philippines and is on the US government's list of foreign terrorist organisations. It has been blamed for the nation's worst terrorist attacks, as well as a series of kidnappings. Police said they had 'rescued' Lu and Tan on Friday. But the police and military did not explain the circumstances leading to the recovery of the two hostages, amid reports of a possible ransom payment by their families. The third hostage, Mark Singson, was beheaded a month after being abducted when ransom negotiations broke down. -- AFP Return to Top of Page Back to Home Page |
