Erap on Makati standoff: Don’t look at me
A surprised Joseph Estrada denied that he had prior knowledge of the standoff in Makati City Thursday, saying he was busy for a medical mission in Quezon City with fellow opposition personalities.
The former president led the medical mission in Barangay Pag-asa with his wife, Dr. Luisa Ejercito, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and former senator Ernesto Maceda.
Following a speech, mediamen covering the event asked Estrada regarding the event that was unfolding in Makati. He denied that he knew about it.
“Hindi ko nga alam kung ano’ng agenda nila. Baka hindi pa ako kasama diyan (I don’t know what their agenda is. I may not even be included in their agenda),” he said.
Pressed for opinion, Estrada said he will monitor the events before he makes his next move.
Binay, meanwhile, declined media interviews despite the standoff that destroyed the lobby of one of his city’s luxury hotels, the Peninsula Manila.
After the medical mission, Estrada and his supporters motored off to a hotel in Quezon City to rest. Mediamen were barred from tailing the former president’s convoy for security reasons.
The former president went home to his mansion in Greenhills, San Juan City around 2 p.m.
At the height of the siege in Makati, meanwhile, reports reached abs-cbnNEWS.com that vehicles with alleged supporters of Estrada were on their way to support Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and renegade soldiers.
Reports said residents of a squatter’s area in Quezon City were on their way to Makati.
In Manila, police said officers blocked four jeepneys loaded with some 100 Estrada supporters on their way to Makati.
The Philippine Star report said members of People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) came from Isla Puting Bato in Tondo, according to Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales.
Members said they were each paid P500 and promised free meals. Each vehicle was hired for P700.
Those apprehended named a certain Vergenia Balondo Totay of Purok 3 in Isla Puting Bato as the organizer. They said they were told to proceed to Makati, where they will converge with other groups on their way to the Peninsula Hotel.
The PMAP, headed by Ronaldo Lumbao, is composed of staunch Estrada supporters who figured in several protest rallies against the government, according to intelligence reports.
Senior Superintendent Jose Espino, police station chief of Moriones, Tondo, said no charges were filed against the group but they were escorted back to Isla Puting Bato.
Meanwhile, Rosales directed his 11 police station chiefs to keep a close watch against unauthorized movement of people especially in Tondo.
Rosales said the MPD is now on red alert, though he downplayed the capability of Trillanes’ groups to bring down the government. “Any protest action, even in small magnitude, is always a threat,” he said.
More policemen were deployed in all vital installations in Manila including Malacañang, the Pandacan oil depot, the United States embassy, LRT and MRT stations and malls and shopping centers.
