A bird's eye view of Downtown Port Moresby this morning, as seen from the 10th floor of Deloitte's Tower yesterday morning, when I was having a chat and a cup of coffee with BAT corporate affairs manager Ako Toua.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
PNG calls state of emergency in capital
By EION BLACKWELL of AAP
.PAPUA New Guinea MPs have voted to declare a state of emergency in the nation's capital after rogue police officers surrounded Parliament House.
If adopted, the emergency rule would give increased powers to PNG's police commissioner to arrest and detain.
The leader of government business, Moses Maladina, put the motion yesterday at a special sitting of Parliament and it is expected to come into force today.
The government also voted to reject the decision of three Supreme Court judges to reinstate Sir Michael Somare as the nation's leader.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said cabinet would meet last night to prepare advice for Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio, who must approve the state of emergency.
Mr O'Neill said the state of emergency would be extended to trouble spots such as the Southern Highlands and Hela province, site of a multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project.
''This has never happened in our country since the Sandline crisis of 1996,'' Mr O'Neill told reporters, referring to the splinter group of police who surrounded Parliament House yesterday.
The Sandline affair brought down the government of Sir Julius Chan after he used private military contractors to resolve the Bougainville dispute.
''These actions are of a criminal nature,'' Mr O'Neill said.
''I want to stress here that we will do all our best so that we do not infringe on the rights of citizens.
"The movement of Papua New Guineans must be free and fair, so there will be no obstruction by the police in enforcing that [state of] emergency.''
About 30 police officers blockaded the road to Parliament House with rocks yesterday and said they were refusing to let Mr O'Neill's government hold a special sitting of parliament until after elections, which begin on June 23 and run for two weeks.
The government says the men were loyal to Fred Yakasa, the man appointed police commissioner by Sir Michael Somare in December when the Supreme Court first ruled he should be reinstated as PM.
The men cleared out after speaking with Assistant Police Commissioner Francis Tokura.
''The last thing we wanted was to see bloodshed among our own men,'' Mr Tokura said.
In what is becoming almost standard practice in Port Moresby, the unexpected blockade briefly flashed white-hot when more than 40 heavily armed police set up a staging area around the corner from the splinter group.
After about 20 minutes, however, an officer was heard to shout ''saddle up, we're out of here'' before the armed officers left in a convoy of 15 cars.
About 30 minutes later, the roadblock outside Parliament was lifted.
The incident came after police, led by Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah, on Thursday arrested and charged the nation's Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia, with sedition.
At a brief committal hearing in court yesterday, Sir Salamo sat silent as the charges against him were read out. Magistrate Cosmos Bidar charged that Sir Salamo and another judge, Nicholas Kirriwom, conspired ''to conduct a seditious enterprise against the state''.
Sir Salamo was one of the three judges who on Monday ruled that ousted leader Sir Michael Somare was the nation's legitimate prime minister and not Mr O'Neill, who was elected PM by a parliamentary majority last year.
Hearing of the case against Sir Salamo was adjourned to July 25.
.PAPUA New Guinea MPs have voted to declare a state of emergency in the nation's capital after rogue police officers surrounded Parliament House.
If adopted, the emergency rule would give increased powers to PNG's police commissioner to arrest and detain.
The leader of government business, Moses Maladina, put the motion yesterday at a special sitting of Parliament and it is expected to come into force today.
The government also voted to reject the decision of three Supreme Court judges to reinstate Sir Michael Somare as the nation's leader.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said cabinet would meet last night to prepare advice for Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio, who must approve the state of emergency.
Mr O'Neill said the state of emergency would be extended to trouble spots such as the Southern Highlands and Hela province, site of a multibillion-dollar liquefied natural gas project.
''This has never happened in our country since the Sandline crisis of 1996,'' Mr O'Neill told reporters, referring to the splinter group of police who surrounded Parliament House yesterday.
The Sandline affair brought down the government of Sir Julius Chan after he used private military contractors to resolve the Bougainville dispute.
''These actions are of a criminal nature,'' Mr O'Neill said.
''I want to stress here that we will do all our best so that we do not infringe on the rights of citizens.
"The movement of Papua New Guineans must be free and fair, so there will be no obstruction by the police in enforcing that [state of] emergency.''
About 30 police officers blockaded the road to Parliament House with rocks yesterday and said they were refusing to let Mr O'Neill's government hold a special sitting of parliament until after elections, which begin on June 23 and run for two weeks.
The government says the men were loyal to Fred Yakasa, the man appointed police commissioner by Sir Michael Somare in December when the Supreme Court first ruled he should be reinstated as PM.
The men cleared out after speaking with Assistant Police Commissioner Francis Tokura.
''The last thing we wanted was to see bloodshed among our own men,'' Mr Tokura said.
In what is becoming almost standard practice in Port Moresby, the unexpected blockade briefly flashed white-hot when more than 40 heavily armed police set up a staging area around the corner from the splinter group.
After about 20 minutes, however, an officer was heard to shout ''saddle up, we're out of here'' before the armed officers left in a convoy of 15 cars.
About 30 minutes later, the roadblock outside Parliament was lifted.
The incident came after police, led by Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah, on Thursday arrested and charged the nation's Chief Justice, Sir Salamo Injia, with sedition.
At a brief committal hearing in court yesterday, Sir Salamo sat silent as the charges against him were read out. Magistrate Cosmos Bidar charged that Sir Salamo and another judge, Nicholas Kirriwom, conspired ''to conduct a seditious enterprise against the state''.
Sir Salamo was one of the three judges who on Monday ruled that ousted leader Sir Michael Somare was the nation's legitimate prime minister and not Mr O'Neill, who was elected PM by a parliamentary majority last year.
Hearing of the case against Sir Salamo was adjourned to July 25.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Building the Kassam Pass road in 1953
By MALUM NALU
Whenever I drive along Kassam Pass, Eastern Highland province, I always make it a point to stop at the Rupert Haviland Memorial Lookout on the top.
Gazing down on the magnificent panorama of the great Markham Valley below, is a sight that always fills me with awe, and the words of one of my favorite poems, Requiem, by Robert Louis Stevenson, come to mind immediately.
More so, because I’m standing at the memorial of young Haviland, who built this road linking the port of Lae with the Highlands as a 21-year-old kiap (patrol officer) in 1953.
“Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly I die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor; home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."
Since I first travelled the Highlands Highway from Goroka to Lae with my father, the late Mathias Nalu just before independence in 1975 as a seven-year-old, I have always been fascinated by this bik rot (big road).
One of the things that touched me then, and does to this day, was when we stood at the Rupert Havilland Memorial Lookout on top of Kassam Pass, and gazed down into the magnificent panorama spread out from the Markham Valley of Morobe province to the towering Finisterre Range.
Havilland was only 21 when he supervised of the construction of the Kassam Pass Road, but upon return to Australia, died at a very young age and his ashes were returned to New Guinea to be scattered over the Kassam Pass.
In 1952, legendary Eastern Highlands District Commissioner (DC) Ian Downs had promised Brigadier Donald Cleland, the new administrator, that he would finish the Kassam Pass road by July 1953.
“Give me 300 shovels and six months and I’ll finish it by the first of July (1953),” Downs told Cleland.
Former kiap Bob Cleland, a son of Administrator Cleland, who worked with Haviland on part of the Kassam Pass and later supervised building of the Daulo Pass, writes in his book Big Road that his friend died unexpectedly of complications following pneumonia while on leave in Australia.
“At his request, Rupe’s ahes were scattered over Kassam Pass,” he writes.
“A stumpy concrete obelisk with an engraved brass plate has been placed there ‘by his friends’.”
Cleland writes that Haviland was known as ‘Young Rupe’ to distinguish him from his kiap father, also known as Rupe.
“Rupe’s father had started his services in 1929 and continued through the war until his retirement in the late 1940s,” Cleland writes.
“Rupe was therefore born and brought up in New Guinea, and his father’s experience as a police officer, army officer and kiap throughout the 1930s and 1940s was a significant influence.
“In fact, Rupe seemed very much a 1930s-style kiap rather than a 1950s one – his attitude towards the village people was paternalistic and tough; he felt that he needed to maintain strong discipline and demonstrate clearly that he was the boss; and he could harangue and cajole an assembly of villagers with a command of colloquial Pidgin and an understanding of his audience that would take me years to master.
“His rapport with people was strong, and the local people liked and respected him.
“Rupe Havilland was highly active, putting a lot of emotional energy into everything he did.
“He was tough on himself and happy to live rough.
“When I first met him, his health was temporarily fragile because of frequent attacks of debilitating malaria but on the whole, he was very fit.
“I was a little alarmed when I discovered that he treated any ailments himself.
“As soon as a cut or leech bite looked like becoming infected – a frequent occurrence – he would self-inject the penicillin he’d persuaded an air post orderly to give him.”
In those days, PNG’s immense mountain barriers inhibited road building but the need to develop the Highlands meant that a road down to the headwaters of the Markham River and then on to the north coast port of Lae was vital.
“The existing Markham Valley track from Lae was passable for about 40 kilometres,” Cleland writes.
“The next 100 kilometres of track to the wartime strip of Gusap near the Markham headwaters was virtually non-existent.
“And there was no link to the Highlands towns of Goroka and Mount Hagen.”
This was the Kassam Pass road that Havilland supervised building of using local labour, prisoners from Kainantu gaol, ace bridge and culvert builder Ludi Schmidt, and paramount luluai Anarai, a local village elder of the people between Kassam and Kainantu
On July 1, 1953, Administrator Cleland, his wife Rachael, Acting Director of the Department of District Services Alan Roberts, and two men with historical connections to Kassam, Tom Aitcheson (now District Commissioner in Lae), and Gerry Toogood (immediate past Assistant District Officer at Kainantu), flew from Lae to Gusap.
From there, three Land Rovers began the climb up Kassam Pass.
Kassam Pass – the road into the Higlands dreamed of by many, rejected as impossible by others – was now open for traffic.
Whenever I drive along Kassam Pass, Eastern Highland province, I always make it a point to stop at the Rupert Haviland Memorial Lookout on the top.
Gazing down on the magnificent panorama of the great Markham Valley below, is a sight that always fills me with awe, and the words of one of my favorite poems, Requiem, by Robert Louis Stevenson, come to mind immediately.
More so, because I’m standing at the memorial of young Haviland, who built this road linking the port of Lae with the Highlands as a 21-year-old kiap (patrol officer) in 1953.
 |
| Rubert Haviland Memorial on Kassam Pass.-Pictures by AKEMI MIKATA |
 |
| Magnificent panorama of the Markham Valley as seen from Kassam Pass |
“Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly I die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor; home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."
Since I first travelled the Highlands Highway from Goroka to Lae with my father, the late Mathias Nalu just before independence in 1975 as a seven-year-old, I have always been fascinated by this bik rot (big road).
One of the things that touched me then, and does to this day, was when we stood at the Rupert Havilland Memorial Lookout on top of Kassam Pass, and gazed down into the magnificent panorama spread out from the Markham Valley of Morobe province to the towering Finisterre Range.
Havilland was only 21 when he supervised of the construction of the Kassam Pass Road, but upon return to Australia, died at a very young age and his ashes were returned to New Guinea to be scattered over the Kassam Pass.
In 1952, legendary Eastern Highlands District Commissioner (DC) Ian Downs had promised Brigadier Donald Cleland, the new administrator, that he would finish the Kassam Pass road by July 1953.
“Give me 300 shovels and six months and I’ll finish it by the first of July (1953),” Downs told Cleland.
Former kiap Bob Cleland, a son of Administrator Cleland, who worked with Haviland on part of the Kassam Pass and later supervised building of the Daulo Pass, writes in his book Big Road that his friend died unexpectedly of complications following pneumonia while on leave in Australia.
“At his request, Rupe’s ahes were scattered over Kassam Pass,” he writes.
“A stumpy concrete obelisk with an engraved brass plate has been placed there ‘by his friends’.”
Cleland writes that Haviland was known as ‘Young Rupe’ to distinguish him from his kiap father, also known as Rupe.
“Rupe’s father had started his services in 1929 and continued through the war until his retirement in the late 1940s,” Cleland writes.
“Rupe was therefore born and brought up in New Guinea, and his father’s experience as a police officer, army officer and kiap throughout the 1930s and 1940s was a significant influence.
“In fact, Rupe seemed very much a 1930s-style kiap rather than a 1950s one – his attitude towards the village people was paternalistic and tough; he felt that he needed to maintain strong discipline and demonstrate clearly that he was the boss; and he could harangue and cajole an assembly of villagers with a command of colloquial Pidgin and an understanding of his audience that would take me years to master.
“His rapport with people was strong, and the local people liked and respected him.
“Rupe Havilland was highly active, putting a lot of emotional energy into everything he did.
“He was tough on himself and happy to live rough.
“When I first met him, his health was temporarily fragile because of frequent attacks of debilitating malaria but on the whole, he was very fit.
“I was a little alarmed when I discovered that he treated any ailments himself.
“As soon as a cut or leech bite looked like becoming infected – a frequent occurrence – he would self-inject the penicillin he’d persuaded an air post orderly to give him.”
In those days, PNG’s immense mountain barriers inhibited road building but the need to develop the Highlands meant that a road down to the headwaters of the Markham River and then on to the north coast port of Lae was vital.
“The existing Markham Valley track from Lae was passable for about 40 kilometres,” Cleland writes.
“The next 100 kilometres of track to the wartime strip of Gusap near the Markham headwaters was virtually non-existent.
“And there was no link to the Highlands towns of Goroka and Mount Hagen.”
This was the Kassam Pass road that Havilland supervised building of using local labour, prisoners from Kainantu gaol, ace bridge and culvert builder Ludi Schmidt, and paramount luluai Anarai, a local village elder of the people between Kassam and Kainantu
On July 1, 1953, Administrator Cleland, his wife Rachael, Acting Director of the Department of District Services Alan Roberts, and two men with historical connections to Kassam, Tom Aitcheson (now District Commissioner in Lae), and Gerry Toogood (immediate past Assistant District Officer at Kainantu), flew from Lae to Gusap.
From there, three Land Rovers began the climb up Kassam Pass.
Kassam Pass – the road into the Higlands dreamed of by many, rejected as impossible by others – was now open for traffic.
Gulf LNG project ‘great opportunity’ for province
By MALUM NALU
Development of the Gulf LNG project will be the “greatest development opportunity in the history of the Gulf province”, according to InterOil corporate affairs manager Kevin Byrne, The National reports.
He said the project would go ahead despite “grenades” being hurled at it, an apparent allusion to continuous criticisms of InterOil as well as the government threats to terminate the Gulf LNG Project Agreement of December 23, 2009.
InterOil is developing the Triceratops-2 appraisal well in Gulf province, along with earlier discoveries by the company in the adjacent Elk/Antelope structure.
“All parties—the project, national government, provincial and LLGs (local level governments) - must accept and take ownership of their legislated responsibilities,” Byrne said in a presentation at last Friday’s mining and petroleum workshop for PNG media,
“All parties need to heed the experience of other large scale resource projects.
“That suggests that many potential benefits do not occur and do not benefit the broader community and there is overwhelming evidence that new approaches are needed to effectively utilise resource revenues.
“A proactive approach is required if social risks are to be effectively managed.
“All responsibilities need be documented and agreed prior to project start and need articulation at the LBSA (landowner benefit sharing agreement) phase.”
Main components of the project are production and preparation of gas at the Elk and Antelope gas fields, transportation of the gas and condensate over a 120km pipeline, liquefaction of the gas, and shipment of the gas and condensate.
Byrne said the current situation in the project area was that most people lived along the coast and rivers; provincial and LLG’s had low capacity and no resources; very few income earning opportunities; strong subsistence base (sago, fishing, hunting, gardens); appalling state of health and education facilities; and basic housing, no or limited electricity and sanitation and poor transport.
He said social and economic impacts would be enormous, including:
• Income levels would increase dramatically;
• Potential for improved access, public infrastructure, services and commercial activities;
• Potential for improved housing and living conditions and government services;
• Substantial in-migration;
• Social tension and conflict—land ownership, benefit sharing arrangements, distribution and inequality;
• Adverse social change;
• Increases in communicable diseases;
• Large scale potential to fuel corruption and PS inefficiency.
Development of the Gulf LNG project will be the “greatest development opportunity in the history of the Gulf province”, according to InterOil corporate affairs manager Kevin Byrne, The National reports.
He said the project would go ahead despite “grenades” being hurled at it, an apparent allusion to continuous criticisms of InterOil as well as the government threats to terminate the Gulf LNG Project Agreement of December 23, 2009.
InterOil is developing the Triceratops-2 appraisal well in Gulf province, along with earlier discoveries by the company in the adjacent Elk/Antelope structure.
“All parties—the project, national government, provincial and LLGs (local level governments) - must accept and take ownership of their legislated responsibilities,” Byrne said in a presentation at last Friday’s mining and petroleum workshop for PNG media,
 |
| Landowner liaison talks in Gulf province |
“That suggests that many potential benefits do not occur and do not benefit the broader community and there is overwhelming evidence that new approaches are needed to effectively utilise resource revenues.
“A proactive approach is required if social risks are to be effectively managed.
“All responsibilities need be documented and agreed prior to project start and need articulation at the LBSA (landowner benefit sharing agreement) phase.”
Main components of the project are production and preparation of gas at the Elk and Antelope gas fields, transportation of the gas and condensate over a 120km pipeline, liquefaction of the gas, and shipment of the gas and condensate.
Byrne said the current situation in the project area was that most people lived along the coast and rivers; provincial and LLG’s had low capacity and no resources; very few income earning opportunities; strong subsistence base (sago, fishing, hunting, gardens); appalling state of health and education facilities; and basic housing, no or limited electricity and sanitation and poor transport.
He said social and economic impacts would be enormous, including:
• Income levels would increase dramatically;
• Potential for improved access, public infrastructure, services and commercial activities;
• Potential for improved housing and living conditions and government services;
• Substantial in-migration;
• Social tension and conflict—land ownership, benefit sharing arrangements, distribution and inequality;
• Adverse social change;
• Increases in communicable diseases;
• Large scale potential to fuel corruption and PS inefficiency.
Highlands Pacific welcomes new copper-gold discovery
Highlands Pacific managing director John Gooding has welcomed the presence of a new copper-gold discovery in the Star Mountains, Western province, near the established Ok Tedi copper-gold mine, The National reports.
The final assays from its 14-hole diamond drilling programme at the Olgal prospect returned the highest copper and gold grades to date of 294 metres at 0.67% copper and 1.16 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 320 metres.
“This hole is quite a surprise and the grade exceptional and more than justifies the effort and resources that we have expended at Star Mountains in the last two years” Gooding said.
“There is no doubt that this is a new copper-gold porphyry province close to the established infrastructure of the Ok Tedi Mine.”
“Importantly, with each hole we are increasing our conceptual understanding of the area and the interplay between the more than a dozen targets we have in mind to test”
“Drilling at Olgal has stopped for now with the rigs now located at the Futik and Pad48 prospects.
“Based on the Olgal results, we look forward to results from these and the next drill target at Rattatat in the coming months.
“Of the 14 hole programme at Olgal, 12 have encountered copper and gold mineralisation.”
Star Mountains leases, which include Nong River EL (exploration license) 1312, Mt Scorpion EL1781 and Tifalmin EL 1392, are located approximately 20km north of the Ok Tedi Mine.
These prospects lie within the highly prospective New Guinean Orogenic Belt, home to deposits like Grasberg, Ok Tedi, Frieda, Porgera and Hidden Valley.
A drilling programme is underway with some significant copper-gold intersections reported.
The final assays from its 14-hole diamond drilling programme at the Olgal prospect returned the highest copper and gold grades to date of 294 metres at 0.67% copper and 1.16 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 320 metres.
“This hole is quite a surprise and the grade exceptional and more than justifies the effort and resources that we have expended at Star Mountains in the last two years” Gooding said.
“There is no doubt that this is a new copper-gold porphyry province close to the established infrastructure of the Ok Tedi Mine.”
“Importantly, with each hole we are increasing our conceptual understanding of the area and the interplay between the more than a dozen targets we have in mind to test”
“Drilling at Olgal has stopped for now with the rigs now located at the Futik and Pad48 prospects.
“Based on the Olgal results, we look forward to results from these and the next drill target at Rattatat in the coming months.
“Of the 14 hole programme at Olgal, 12 have encountered copper and gold mineralisation.”
Star Mountains leases, which include Nong River EL (exploration license) 1312, Mt Scorpion EL1781 and Tifalmin EL 1392, are located approximately 20km north of the Ok Tedi Mine.
These prospects lie within the highly prospective New Guinean Orogenic Belt, home to deposits like Grasberg, Ok Tedi, Frieda, Porgera and Hidden Valley.
A drilling programme is underway with some significant copper-gold intersections reported.
PNG police, army leave parliament area
AAP
A blockade at Papua New Guinea's Parliament House has ended after a rogue group of about 30 police officers blockaded the road to Parliament House with rocks this morning and told AAP they were refusing to let the government of Peter O'Neill hold a special sitting of parliament.
The men cleared out after speaking with Assistant Police Commissioner Francis Tokura.
"The last thing we wanted was to see bloodshed among our own men," Mr Tokura said.
"We are very grateful we were able to sort it without bloodshed.
"The only important thing that was expressed by the men at Parliament House is they want an election for PNG."
Mr Tokura said he shared their view that getting PNG to the June poll was of extreme importance.
In what is becoming almost standard practice in Port Moresby, the unexpected blockade briefly flashed white hot when more than 40 heavily armed police set up a staging area around the corner from the splinter group.
After about 20 minutes, however, an officer was heard to shout "saddle up, we're out of here" before the armed officers left in a convoy of 15 cars.
About 30 minutes later, the roadblock outside parliament was lifted.
AAP understands members of parliament are now entering the building, where a special sitting is expected to be held so MPs can deal with a controversial court decision reappointing ousted PM Sir Michael Somare to the top job.
The incident was sparked after police, led by Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah, arrested and charged the nation's chief justice, Sir Salamo Injia, with sedition on Thursday.
At a brief committal hearing in court on Friday, Sir Salamo sat silent as the charges against him were read out.
Magistrate Cosmos Bidar charged that Sir Salamo and another judge, Nicholas Kirriwom, conspired "to conduct a seditious enterprise against the state".
Sir Salamo was one of three judges who on Monday ruled ousted leader Sir Michael was the nation's legitimate prime minister and not Mr O'Neill, who was elected PM by a parliamentary majority last year.
Mr O'Neill's government alleges the court is biased and is trying to interfere with the upcoming June elections.
Last week, an email exchange allegedly between Sir Salamo and Justice Kirriwom referred to the O'Neill government as "illegal".
The emails were sent in February, while the pair were conducting hearings into the government's legitimacy.
Hearing of the case against Sir Salamo was adjourned to July 25.
Meanwhile, Sir Michael has issued a statement saying he has begun campaigning on behalf of his National Alliance party. However, it is unclear if the 76-year-old will stand for re election.
The PNG Electoral Commission has told AAP ballot boxes sent from China have been delivered to Port Moresby
A blockade at Papua New Guinea's Parliament House has ended after a rogue group of about 30 police officers blockaded the road to Parliament House with rocks this morning and told AAP they were refusing to let the government of Peter O'Neill hold a special sitting of parliament.
The men cleared out after speaking with Assistant Police Commissioner Francis Tokura.
"The last thing we wanted was to see bloodshed among our own men," Mr Tokura said.
"We are very grateful we were able to sort it without bloodshed.
"The only important thing that was expressed by the men at Parliament House is they want an election for PNG."
Mr Tokura said he shared their view that getting PNG to the June poll was of extreme importance.
In what is becoming almost standard practice in Port Moresby, the unexpected blockade briefly flashed white hot when more than 40 heavily armed police set up a staging area around the corner from the splinter group.
After about 20 minutes, however, an officer was heard to shout "saddle up, we're out of here" before the armed officers left in a convoy of 15 cars.
About 30 minutes later, the roadblock outside parliament was lifted.
AAP understands members of parliament are now entering the building, where a special sitting is expected to be held so MPs can deal with a controversial court decision reappointing ousted PM Sir Michael Somare to the top job.
The incident was sparked after police, led by Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah, arrested and charged the nation's chief justice, Sir Salamo Injia, with sedition on Thursday.
At a brief committal hearing in court on Friday, Sir Salamo sat silent as the charges against him were read out.
Magistrate Cosmos Bidar charged that Sir Salamo and another judge, Nicholas Kirriwom, conspired "to conduct a seditious enterprise against the state".
Sir Salamo was one of three judges who on Monday ruled ousted leader Sir Michael was the nation's legitimate prime minister and not Mr O'Neill, who was elected PM by a parliamentary majority last year.
Mr O'Neill's government alleges the court is biased and is trying to interfere with the upcoming June elections.
Last week, an email exchange allegedly between Sir Salamo and Justice Kirriwom referred to the O'Neill government as "illegal".
The emails were sent in February, while the pair were conducting hearings into the government's legitimacy.
Hearing of the case against Sir Salamo was adjourned to July 25.
Meanwhile, Sir Michael has issued a statement saying he has begun campaigning on behalf of his National Alliance party. However, it is unclear if the 76-year-old will stand for re election.
The PNG Electoral Commission has told AAP ballot boxes sent from China have been delivered to Port Moresby
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