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Lift emergency, Arroyo told

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: A security task force set up by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines recommended on Thursday that she could consider lifting the national emergency that was proclaimed a week ago on the basis of a perceived coup plot by a section of the military forces. The group was asked to assess the situation. Head of the three-member team, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, told journalists in Manila that the experts were leaning towards "recommending" the scrapping of the emergency orders. Mr. Gonzalez said "the plotters that sought to undermine the Government have been thwarted" and that "a significant number of them have been exposed." Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz said the latest assessment about an improved security situation was based on the report of General Generoso Senga, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, that the problem arising out of a coup plot from within the Marines and Scout Rangers, two elite military units, had now been resolved. Police Director General Arturo Lomibao expressed confidence that "domestic tranquillity will continue to normalise."

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