Gov’t allegedly planning to quell opposition protests

A document that circulated yesterday within the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang (Pilipino KNP) disclosed an alleged plan by the administration to thwart any violent protests in case of a narrow victory by President Arroyo.

The alleged document, which was provided by KNP sources, warns of "a period of instability and protests" since KNP standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr. and the opposition will not "easily concede" defeat in the May 10 presidential elections.

The strategy, dubbed "Oplan Checkmate," is to isolate Poe and his running mate, Sen. Loren Legarda, from the rest of the KNP ticket who are in "a position to mount mass actions" against the government.

"This can be done by making discreet prior arrangements with some KNP senatoriables to accept a GMA win in exchange for a guaranteed seat in the Senate. This can be operationalized through third parties," the paper stated.

It said that even if "no prior arrangements could be made, it is still worthwhile to include some of them in the winning slate" to deny them a strong motive for joining any post-election protests and to weaken any claim of election fraud.

The paper implied that the trade-off would be for the administration K-4 (Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan) coalition to junk some of its senatorial candidates who are not expected to win and to give their slots to the KNP.

"But we should only choose those who, because of their past or present links to the military, police, civil society and other organized groups are capable of destabilizing the government," the paper said.

Among the KNP candidates and officials supposedly to be contacted are former senator Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Gregorio Honasan because of their reputation as heroes of EDSA I. Honasan is currently Poe’s chief of "vote security."

Former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim was deemed important because of his background as a police officer, while Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. was cited for the role he played in EDSA II and his Mindanao advocacy.