MANILA, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The Philippine government filed sedition charges against a hardline opposition newspaper on Friday, hours after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lifted a state of emergency she declared one week earlier, the newspaper said on Saturday.

    The newspaper, the Daily Tribune, was raided on Feb. 25 by police one day after Arroyo declared the state of emergency. Police were also deployed at the entrance of the newspaper office in Manila until Friday.

    The Philippine National Police filed the charges against the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Daily Tribune, Ninez Cacho-Olivares, and two of the newspaper's columnists, to the Departmentof Justice.

    According to a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, among the evidence submitted by the Department of Justice were copies ofthe newspaper's columns that allegedly contained seditious remarks.

    Among all Philippine newspapers, the Daily Tribune is the most relentless critic of President Arroyo.

    Former president Joseph Estrada was reportedly one of the newspaper's shareholders. Enditem