The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Friday declared its highest state of alert in Metro Manila, following a mounting call by various sectors for president Arroyo to resign from office for allegedly rigging results of last year's elections.

AFP chief general Efren Abu directed the AFP National Capital Region (NCR) Command, which has jurisdiction of Metro Manila, to observe the red alert status effective 12:00 noon Friday, hours after a number of Arroyo's cabinet resigned and asked her to resign.

"All units are reminded to intensify intelligence collection effort and implement preemptive measures to prevent or deter threat groups from launching offensive actions against our forces, and also from instigating hostility and destabilization that could lead to an attack to the seat of government," said Abu in a directive issued to all major service commanders, unified area commanders, and chiefs of AFP-wide service and support units.

"Units within NCR to include the major services shall maintain their respective contingency forces for possible augmentation to NCR Command," said Abu, adding that area commanders have the prerogative to upgrade their alert depending on situation in their areas of responsibility.

Abu said all other units within Metro Manila, including the headquarters of the Army, Navy and Air Force, should be on blue alert, the second highest alert status. The normal or lowest alert status is white alert.

Source: Xinhua