Government pursuing businessmen, military frats in power grab

Authorities are seeking to pin down the secret financiers of a revolt by loyalists of jailed former President Joseph Estrada but have released about 35 mostly indigent Estrada supporters who were jailed in connection with the Labor Day riots last week.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said the businessmen who allegedly helped finance the revolt and clandestine military fraternities protecting soldiers and policemen involved in the plot are being closely watched.

This developed as Mrs. Arroyo told the leaders of the Labor Day plot to overthrow her administration not to underestimate her just because she is a woman.

In an interview with a select group of Chinese journalists, the President said her administration emerged stronger after the crisis she went through during her first 100 days in office.

The President warned those who tried to topple her administration against thinking that she will just surrender and let her government collapse just because she is a woman.

Mrs. Arroyo was widely lauded for her decisiveness in crushing the rebellion and for her compassion on some 100 detainees who have been languishing in jail since Tuesday last week after they and thousands of others stormed the gates of Malacañang.

The government claims the crowds that assaulted Malacañang were paid, transported and fed by allies of Estrada who was jailed on April 25 pending his trial on charges of economic plunder.

In a radio interview, Reyes said that their investigations were very sensitive, remarking that "it is an emotionally charged situation because the (May 14) elections are near."

"We’ve been following several leads that certain businessmen were involved in the recent rebellion and since there is such information... the police are following it up," Reyes said.

Reyes clarified, however, that any probe would have to distinguish between businessmen who merely supported pro-Estrada rallies and those who actually sponsored the march on the Palace.

"It depends on what they are funding and at what point they were funding or supporting it," he said.

Reyes said the military was also conducting counter-intelligence operations against military fraternities that might be shielding two of the alleged leaders of the rebellion plot.

Fugitive Sen. Gregorio Honasan and fugitive senatorial candidate Panfilo Lacson escaped arrest and have been in hiding after the failed power grab.

Officials previously said Honasan and Lacson, who are both running for the Senate under Estrada’s slate, would be hard to find because they still have a network of contacts among the police and military.

"We are just conducting normal operations to see to it that any attempt to alienate our people from government, loyalty to the Constitution and its laws does not succeed," Reyes said. – Christina Mendez, Marichu Villanueva, Mike Frialde, Sandy Araneta