Restrictions on Palace press corps lifted

Back to normal.

Malacañang media can now cover their beat with the usual cellular phones, hand-held radios as well as TV and video cameras after these were confiscated in the midst of coup rumors Sunday night.

"We’re back to normal!" Press Secretary Noel Cabrera said yesterday. "Whatever danger there was, it has dissipated already."

The Palace agreed to restrict the movements of the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC) in reaction to intelligence reports of alleged plots by rabid supporters of jailed former President Joseph Estrada to storm the Palace and force President Arroyo from office.

The media restrictions, imposed on orders of Presidential Security Group (PSG) commander Brig. Gen. Glenn Rabonza, were effectively lifted yesterday morning.

The PSG went on "high state of alert" late Sunday night and made a show of force of their men and equipment, deploying three armored personnel carriers at the Palace where the President and her family reside.

Cabrera explained the PSG curtailed the free movement of media in order to prevent some of them from intentionally and unwittingly providing information on troop deployments at Malacañang just as the pro-Estrada crowd at EDSA threatened to march there.

"There really was no attempt to restrict in any way the freedom of the press, freedom of coverage. It was only last night, admittedly; the situation last night was different," Cabrera said.

He mentioned previous instances when "over-excited" reporters were allowed to freely roam the Palace and report the situation inside down to the last pindrop.

"And it really put the safety of those soldiers in jeopardy," he said. "So they (PSG) requested if there could be these kinds of restrictions and I felt these are reasonable enough given the situation last Sunday night."

Cabrera apologized to Palace reporters when several of them complained of being "harassed" by certain PSG troopers.

Rowena dela Fuente of Net 25, which has been carrying an exhaustive round-the-clock coverage of the so-called EDSA III, Paolo Romero of The STAR, and 10 other reporters were in the list provided by Rabonza to be denied entry to the Palace.

Radio reporter Aileen Intia of dzBB also complained that a couple of PSG guards tried to forcibly escort her out of Malacañang.

Jovy Francisco of ABC-Channel 5 said his TV crew were not allowed in but he saw Reuters TV interviewing Presidential Spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao.

"While we recognize the need for the PSG to keep their security preparations inside the Palace premises as a ... state secret, we do however insist that there is a proper manner and appropriate means to ensure them without resorting to ‘martial law’ techniques," the MPC said in a statement.

"The MPC takes these incidents as products of isolated paranoia by certain Palace and PSG officials because of the prevailing ... EDSA III turmoil. The MPC reporters also covered EDSA people power 2 right inside Malacañang and we did not suffer such attempts of suppression of the press," it added. – Marichu Villanueva