NAGA CITY, Philippines -- Former senator Franklin Drilon said here on Thursday that a "strong military clique" in the Arroyo administration could be laying the groundwork for martial rule in the country.

"It is very clear there is very strong military clique in the Arroyo administration,” he said.

Drilon, citing unnamed sources, revealed that former Presidential Management Staff Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr., a former military chief, has been eyed to replace Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr., who would be moved to the Department of Justice.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera would be moved back to the Office of the Solicitor General, said Drilon.

Teodoro, however, was not keen on leaving the defense department, Drilon said.

Drilon said he had lost track of the number of police and military generals occupying high government positions. They include: Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and acting interior secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, both former chiefs of the Philippine National Police(PNP); Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, a former military chief; and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita a former military vice chief.

He said the bombings in Jolo in Sulu, Cotabato City and Iligan City, which the government had blamed on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, could be "part of mind-conditioning."

“(National Security Adviser) Secretary (Norberto) Gonzales keeps on talking about a revolutionary government which totally disregards the Constitution. And if the present administration is thinking of an emergency rule, they could not just trample and throw out the Constitution,” Drilon said.

He said moves by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to push for a constituent assembly of Congress to amend the Constitution could still happen within 2009.

However, he said any attempt by the House of Representatives to force a constituent assembly during the joint session of Congress specifically during Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27, would be “totally unconstitutional and illegal.”