Word: arroyos
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Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo blamed "military adventurists" for plotting to overthrow her government last week. But who were those adventurists? What exactly were they up to? TIME got a box seat for the alleged plot: witnessing a meeting last Thursday evening at which plans were hatched for what a ringleader called a "withdrawal of support" from Arroyo, a U.S.-educated economist who was Bill Clinton's classmate at Georgetown University...
...meeting, which stretched into the early-morning hours, took place at the Makito home of Jose Cojuangco, brother of former President Corazon Aquino. While Cojuangco's daughter kept a buffet table piled high with chicken sandwiches, macaroni salad and cookies, Pastor Saycon, a businessman and longtime Arroyo critic, outlined plans for a new government. (Saycon invited TIME's Nelly Sindayen to witness the meeting.) While more than a dozen businessmen and politicians listened, Saycon phoned a person he identified as a U.S. official in Washington. "You will still be our friend, not China," Saycon assured the man. Saycon then phoned...
...plot fizzled when Lim tried to enlist the support of Armed Forces Chief of Staff Generosa Senga, who instead took Lim into custody. On Friday Arroyo declared a state of emergency. Neither Saycon nor anyone else at the meeting was immediately arrested...
...Arroyo's hold on power remains tenuous. The military said last week that 14 junior officers had been briefly detained for allegedly plotting a separate coup. And despite pledges of support by the armed forces, rumors of unrest are a constant source of fear for Arroyo's civilian leadership. In a TV address, she declared that "as commander in chief, I control the situation." In the hurly-burly politics of the Philippines, that remains to be seen...
...overthrow dictator Ferdinand Marcos, they transformed their nation into perhaps the freest in Asia. But last weekend, on the 20th anniversary of the People Power revolution, Filipinos found themselves once again living under the chill of emergency rule. Capping a tense week of coup rumors, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo proclaimed a state of national emergency on Friday morning, announcing in a taped message on television that she had crushed an attempt by prominent military officers to overthrow her government. Arroyo appealed for calm, even as security forces were put on "double red alert" at the presidential palace, at army...