Philippines In State Of Emergency

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of emergency 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 defying a ban on rallying at a shrine to the 1986 revolt that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The military barricaded its camps to keep troops from joining the demonstrations and detained an army general allegedly involved in the takeover plot.

"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."

The government canceled commemorations of the popular uprising, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said, adding that the military has been ordered "to prevent and suppress lawless violence."

Arroyo claimed the military had quashed an effort by some military officers and their men to intervene in politics.

"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 as Marcos used it to rule by decree.

Her chief of staff, Mike Defensor, said the declaration will not include a curfew but bans 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.

However, former President Corazon Aquino led a march Friday at Manila's financial district, calling for Arroyo's resignation. "Let us not allow anyone to grab our democracy from us again," Aquino told the rally. "Let us all help to end the dictatorship, let us all help to bring back democracy."

The Philippine stock market and the peso both plunged after the emergency declaration.

In Washington, the State Department said it was monitoring the situation. "We firmly support the rule of law and constitutional government. Violence should be avoided," spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said.

Military chiefs said they backed the democratically elected Arroyo. They arrested an army general, who leads 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."

An unspecified number of other people also were taken into custody, and police were seeking eight to 10 more, said Arroyo chief of staff Mike 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 dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Extra barbed wire and shipping containers were set up on roads leading to Malacanang, the presidential palace, and only essential staff were allowed in. Security council members had to leave their cars outside and walk into the compound.

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 already were on high alert nationwide as widespread reports of a coup plot have circulated for more than a week; even elementary school students were discussing it in detail.

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 popular 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 over massive corruption and vote-rigging. Opposition groups have continued to call for her resignation.