President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Saturday lifted martial law she imposed in in Maguindanao on Dec. 4, saying the rebellion in the province has been foiled, officials said. However, the province will remain under a state of emergency, said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita during a press briefing in Malacanang. Arroyo lifted martial law a day after Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago warned of a “conspiracy” to extend martial rule nationwide until next year, which would mean cancelling the scheduled general elections on May 10, 2010. Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao on Dec, 4 following the Nov. 23 massacre of at least 57 people, including 30 journalists, blamed on the powerful political warlord with close ties to Arroyo. Earlier, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the president would lift martial law as soon as the police and military commanders in Maguindanao confirmed that the “rebellion” there had been curbed, the suspects in the massacre arrested, charges have been filed against them, the witnesses have been secured, civilian government in Maguindanao fully restored and illegal armed groups have been disarmed. Ermita said the six conditions have been met. Remonde put Santiago to task for claming that there is a “grand conspiracy” to extend martial law throughout the country, which could have involved even the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “Those scares have no basis, those conspiracy theories have no basis. There is no grand conspiracy. We will not expand nor extend martial law,” he said on government-run radio. Remonde said Santiago's claims might have been due to her “personal grudge” against Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, who supervises the Philippine National Police (PNP). “With all due respect to Senator Santiago, we know she has a grudge against Secretary Puno. Anything involving Puno, she is allergic to. But we respect her, though I respectfully but strongly beg to differ with her speculation of the conspiracy theory,” Remonde said. Remonde said the surveillance on the suspected houses of the Ampatuan clan in Metro Manila should not cause public alarm that violence could spill over to the capital that could prompt the declaration of martial law in Metro Manila. “Those fears have no basis. Unlike in Maguindanao, the national government is very much functioning in Metro Manila and elsewhere in the country,” he said.
