NR0618: ON Laarni and martial law rumors

New Release
June 18, 2005
From the Office of Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran

PNP’s tack to pin Laarni Enriquez in tape scandal diversionary tactic; on martial law rumors

Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran today said that the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) revelation that TSgt. Vidal Doble allegedly received P2 million from ousted Pres. Joseph Estrada’s mistress former actress Laarni Enriquez in exchange for Doble’s participation in the wire-tapping of Pres. Arroyo’s controversial poll-fraud conversation was very convenient for the PNP and the Macapagal-Arroyo admnistration.

"The administration is on the keen look-out for escape hatches and fall-guys to pin the current predicament it’s now in. The PNP’s latest revelation on Ms. Enriquez isn’t a new twist, and it’s an attempt to deflect the attention of the public from President Arroyo and the controversial tapes proving her poll fraud. Time and again, the admnistration has pinned the blame on the opposition for all it’s foul-ups. Vidal Doble is currently in the custody of the PNP, and it’s at all unlikely that the supposed sworn and signed affidavit he has given implicating Ms. Enriquez is fabricated. This is a very transparent move on the part of the PNP. "

He said that it was likely that Doble is being pressured or threatened into implicating Enriquez or members of the opposition. "The PNP can do or say whatever it wants and pass it off as Doble’s statements because they have the latter under custody. The PNP and Malacanang are going to try their hardest to use Doble as their weapon of defense and deflect the heat from Pres. Arroyo and turn it on the opposition."

Beltran said that PNP director Arturo Lomibao shouldn’t count his chickens yet just because he has Doble in custody. "The balance hasn’t wavered in favor of the administration. The angle that intrigues and causes strong outrage among Filipinos now isn’t so much how the tapes came out or who did what to tape the conversations, but what the tapes contain and what it implies for the presidency."

"Ms. Enriquez’ dare that she will by all means attend congressional investigations if Pres. Arroyo will do the same should be taken up. Up to now Pres. Arroyo has said nil regarding the tapes, and this silence only fuels the believe of more and more Filipinos that one of the voices in the tapes is hers orchestrating election fraud," he said.

Regarding the threat of martial law being imposed, meanwhile, the veteran labor leader turned lawmaker said that it will not be easy for Pres. Arroyo to make such a declaration. He said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and even the PNP were not solidly behind her administration. "The rank and file of the military are severely demoralized by the continuing corruption in the government and the lack of genuine reform in the armed forces. Furthermore, there’s a solid bloc of civil libertarian forces that will immediately rally and stand up against any attempts to plunge the country under martial law."


"Pres. Arroyo’s lust for power will inevitably prove to be undoing. Her credibility has been whittled away to almost nothing and she remains in Malacanang by the skin of her teeth. No machinations or strategies to blame the opposition for the tape scandal will save Pres. Arroyo. She can’t even answer the most basic of questions – is she or isn’t she the woman whose voice is in the tapes? It can’t be Ate Glo or even Willy Nepomuceno," he concluded.#