MANILA, Feb. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The Philippine government said on Tuesday the state of national emergency might be lifted within the week if the situation continued to normalize.

    Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Trade Secretary Peter Favila said the situation would be assessed on a daily basis to determine if the state of emergency could be lifted.

    They told the media that political, security and economic officials who met Monday night at the Malacanang presidential palace said it might take days until Saturday to make the final assessment and then decide whether to lift Proclamation No. 1017 decree, signed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declaring a state of national emergency.

    Meanwhile, a presidential spokesman said the state of national emergency would only be used as a shield against "mob rule" and other acts of destabilization.

    "There is a crackdown on anarchy and disorder, not on freedoms," presidential spokesman and Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

    "If the plotters had succeeded, the country could have been inflames by now as the factions of the extreme left, the misguided elements of the military and the political opportunists fought among themselves for supremacy," Bunye added.

    The Philippine police filed rebellion charges against 16 people on Monday before the Department of Justice for alleged conspiracy to topple the government of President Arroyo.

    Among those charged were former senator Gregorio Honasan who, as an Army colonel, led several coup attempts against Corazon Aquino during her presidency including a bloody one in December 1989, and Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison, who is now living in exile in the Netherlands.

    Also accused of conspiring with Magdalo renegade military officers and the New People's Army to oust Arroyo were a number of left-wing House Representatives, and two mutinous soldiers in amilitary revolt in 2003.

    President Arroyo issued the proclamation last Friday, saying the country remained under clear and present danger even as a planned move to overthrow the government had been foiled. Enditem