Cops close Mendiola Bridge, secure Palace on Arroyo birthday

As President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo turned 63 Monday, presidential guards and Manila police sealed off the Malacañang Palace complex and Mendiola bridge from militant protesters. Radio dzBB’s Carlo Mateo reported the Manila Police District and Presidential Security Group closed off Mendiola Bridge to traffic as early as 6 a.m. Militant groups had vowed to give Mrs. Arroyo a noisy birthday “sendoff" with a march to Malacañang, saying they want to remind her to step down from power when her term ends June 30. [See: Militant workers prepare noisy birthday gift for arroyo] Police guarding the Palace compound said they expected the militants to try to march to Malacañang gates as early as 9 a.m. However, Mrs. Arroyo was not at the Palace on her birthday, as she was scheduled to hear a mass in her hometown of Lubao in Pampanga province. [See: Arroyo celebrates birthday in Pampanga hometown] A separate dzBB report said Mrs. Arroyo, who is running for congresswoman of the second district of Pampanga, which includes Lubao town, left St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City early. President Arroyo stayed at St. Luke’s Medical Center since March 25, to watch over First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, who was brought there for a condition related to his heart operation in 2007. — LBG, GMANews.TV