Estrada convenes National Security Council today

President Estrada will convene the National Security Council today amid jitters caused by allegations of corruption in government, a planned massive transport strike, festering insurgency problems and rumors of a coup attempt.

Still, National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre said the security outlook was "generally stable and promising in terms of the country's well-functioning democratic institutions."

"We are hitting hard at the root causes of crime and insurgency," he said in a statement.

Aguirre said Mr. Estrada wanted the council to draw up a consensus "covering vital security strategies, policies and programs."

The security council is composed of key government officials like Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado, Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr., Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora and Aguirre.

Among leaders of Congress who are expected to attend the meeting at Malacañang are Senate President Blas Ople, Speaker Manuel Villar, Senate Minority Leader Teofisto Guingona and House Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas, Quezon City).

Also invited to the security briefing were Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes, Philippine National Police chief Deputy Director General Panfilo Lacson and Lt. Gen. Jose Calimlim, chief of Intelligence Service of the AFP.

The meeting is to be held as Mr. Estrada's nearly two-year-old administration is buffeted by allegations of corruption said to involve his relatives and friends, as well as resurgent communist and Muslim insurgencies.

Mr. Estrada's presidency has also been wounded by an insider trading scandal at the Philippine Stock Exchange revolving around an investigation into the abnormal surge of a gaming scrip controlled by one of his friends, businessman Dante Tan.

The President on Wednesday dismissed a newspaper report about a coup plot, blaming his political opponents for the rumors. Some analysts however warned against complacency.

The Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM), which spearheaded the most serious coup attempts against former President Corazon Aquino in the late 1980s, earlier this week wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado expressing concern over several issues, including neglect of soldiers in the field.

While the RAM, composed of officers and enlisted personnel, may have lost its former influence, analysts said its concerns should not just be brushed aside.

"There may be no serious coup threat as yet but when younger officers and men start to grumble ... can a resentful military reaction be far away?" asked STAR publisher Max Soliven in his column.

He said the letter was a "symptom -- not yet a threat."

UP professor Alexander Magno said: "Given the building tensions, rising disappointment and the convergence of several political groups on the demand for the president to resign, the possibility of a real coup conspiracy underway cannot be completely discounted."