Former Press Secretary Ricardo Dong Puno, also a senatorial candidate of the LDP-Puwersa ng Masa coalition, said there was no need for such a declaration, adding the government was using a Howitzer to kill a fly. Puno said that the government could clamp down on press freedom next. LDP legal counsel Avelino Cruz said there was no rebellion in the first place, insisting that the mob at Mendiola was not an armed group. Santiago Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has filed a petition questioning the declaration in the Supreme Court, said no state of rebellion existed. Under accepted jurisprudence, what we have at most is a state of lawless violence or sedition in Metro Manila.
Rebellion requires organization, huge masses of people, and the widespread use of arms.
These requirements are absent, she said in a press statement. Santiago said the marchers at Mendiola did not seek to topple the government but only to ask Ms Macapagal to stop the transfer of President Estrada from the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City to a detention center in Sta. Luisa Loi Ejercito said security forces were to blame for Monday s violence. The Integrated Bar of the Philippines said that the declaration of a state of rebellion was only intended to justify the warrantless arrest of senators identified with Estrada. The IBP also argued that peace and order could be restored without the government resorting to such measures.