This whole new development is getting more and more curious: while the official government statements have floated various rumors -- connections with Estrada, officers disgruntled with low pay -- the BBC reports on the Magdalo group's statement:
In a statement read out on the video, the group accused the government of selling arms and ammunition to Muslim and communist rebels, staging recent deadly bombings to justify more aid from the United States and preparing to declare martial law to stay in power.Something's going on, all right, as reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer:
One of the leaders of the group, identified as Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes, earlier called out: "We mean no harm to anyone," adding that "we are putting these (bombs) to defend ourselves."(None of this is mentioned on CNN, by the way.)"They are putting a death warrant on us," he said, adding, "they want to suppress what we know."
...
"This government is pushing us to do this," Trillanes yelled.
ABS-CBN has Joey Lina's reaction:
Interior Secretary Jose Lina said the allegations of staged bombings to justify an Arroyo move toward martial law were "black propaganda."Here's more of the Magdalo group's statement:"This is a lie," Lina said on radio. "They are just being used by the politicians who want to seize power."
The statement charged the Arroyo administration, through the Department of National Defense headed by Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, with selling war materiel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines arsenal to rebel groups.Posted by the wily filipino at July 26, 2003 02:44 PMAs a result, the statement underscored, Filipino soldiers fighting the rebels are being killed by bullets and weapons from their own arsenal.
The statement also claimed that the explosions that rocked Davao City were masterminded by Secretary Reyes and Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, commander of the Armed Forces Intelligence Service.
The staged explosions that killed scores of civilians, the group alleged, were carried out as part of the effort to brand the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as terrorists and eventually to secure anti-terrorist funding for the military establishment.