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Police hunt for activist who taunted Arroyo

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Raissa Robles

A Filipino union leader who taunted his country's president during a trip to New Zealand is now the subject of a police search.

His crime is to have 'embarrassed the president' during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's state visit to New Zealand late last month.

Dennis Maga had locked himself up inside a steel cage in front of the Parliament in the capital Wellington.

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During her tour, Mrs Arroyo issued assurances that she shared 'the values of human rights and democracy, the same as New Zealand'.

Mr Maga's widely covered publicity stunt was aimed at bringing attention to extrajudicial killings in the Philippines and the political persecution of progressive labour representatives.

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Mr Maga is the spokesman of Anakpawis Partylist group, which occupies two seats in the lower house.

One of Anakpawis' representatives in the legislature, Crispin Beltran, has been detained by the Arroyo government for a year now, on charges of rebelling against the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos' regime over 20 years ago.

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