The story did not land in any of the pro-Aquino newspapers. But it ran as the Times’s banner story, and prompted Aquino to call in some of his closest advisers for consultations. They decided not to react officially to the story, but simply to intensify monitoring of the activities of the Council. So the next two assemblies convened by the Council on Dec. 3 at the Grand Lewis Hotel in Angeles City, and on Dec. 5 at the SM complex in Davao drew noticeably increased interest from the intelligence services reporting to Malacañang. It can be assumed that Malacañang got an accurate intelligence briefing on the presence of the militant Guardians organization and of one former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces (Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr) in Angeles, and of several powerful Muslim groups among the 4,000 or so Mindanaoans at SMX in Davao. That, together with the strong declarations issued by the two assemblies, should have prompted Aquino to see the Council, and his uncle’s position, in a clearer light. The Angeles declaration endorsed all the previous declarations issued in Lipa, Cebu, and Butuan, and called for a stepped-up campaign for regime and systems change. The Davao declaration, on the other hand, declared that no solution to any of the problems being raised before the Council was possible until Aquino was forced out of Malacañang. “The time to compel Aquino to step down is now,” the Declaration said. After Davao, “the Council should now embark upon a nationwide mobilization effort to transform its vision into reality,” the Declaration concluded.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 23:52:20 +0000
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