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MANILA, July 26: The Philippine army went on high alert on Saturday as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the capture of up to 70 rogue junior officers and armed deserters after days of rumours about a brewing coup.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya expressed the military’s support for the president after meeting Arroyo alongside other senior military officials.
Abaya told reporters that 20 army and navy officers and 40 to 50 servicemen, engaging in an “unconstitutional adventurist exercise”, were somewhere around Manila, the capital of 10 million people.
They were armed with high-powered, hand-held weapons and had “associated themselves with some groups with personal and/or political interest”, he said without elaborating.
Local media reported some of the rogue soldiers were elite troops trained in urban warfare and explosives.
Talk of a coup plot by junior officers angry about pay and the pace of internal reforms began earlier in the week but caused no visible sense of public anxiety and put only a slight dent in the stock and currency markets.
By Saturday evening, the gates of Camp Aguinaldo, the main military facility in Manila, were blocked by troops and trucks.
Security was also tight at Camp Crame, the headquarters of the national police, but there were no unusual troop movements around the presidential palace.
Arroyo, who is due to set out her successes and policies in a national address on Monday, said on Saturday she had listened to “legitimate grievances” from some junior officers but that the renegade soldiers would be court martialled.
“The republic will exact the maximum penalty for the purveyors of mutiny or rebellion. This warning extends to unscrupulous politicians who exploit the messianic complex of these rogue officers for their naked ambition,” she said.
“I assure all that we are in full control of the situation.”
CHURCH WARNED OF COUP: Television commentators talked of retired generals occupying prime army housing and low-ranking soldiers risking their lives for as little as 4,000 pesos (74 dollars) a month.
But analysts see little support for a coup among senior military officers or the public.
The 113,000-strong military has no official role in the democratic process but has helped oust or ordain several leaders, from Ferdinand Marcos to Arroyo’s rise from vice president in 2001 as a popular revolt drove out Joseph Estrada.
Arroyo has faced coup rumours in the past over questions about her legitimacy as leader and graft in her government.
Cardinal Jaime Sin, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Manila and the most influential cleric in the nation of 82 million, had warned earlier on Saturday of “ongoing plots, organised and already in operation, set on destabilising our society”.
“We cannot deny that much reform is needed,” he said in a statement. “What must be done for national renewal can and must be done through peaceful means.”
Security forces were already on red alert for attacks by Muslim or communist rebels around Arroyo’s speech, which has only fed into the usual swirl of rumours and text messages.
To cool the temperature, the armed forces took the unusual step of alerting the public to authorised troop movements in Manila ahead of Monday’s address.
The Philippines was under martial law for nearly two decades during the Marcos era, but the army turned against the dictator in a popular uprising in 1986 and has tried to shake off allegations of rights abuses and corruption. —Reuters
