Philippines coup bid ends

MANILA – The latest coup bid in the Philippines ended on Thursday in a military assault on a luxury hotel and a fusillade of shots but no casualties.

Elite military and police units stormed the Manila Peninsula Hotel, a plush icon in the sprawling city of 12 million people, and arrested rebel soldiers, a senator and a handful of priests who had taken over the building and called on the army to mutiny. The troops fired teargas into the lobby of the hotel and used an armoured personnel carrier (APC) to batter down its glass doors before storming in.Four other APCs were stationed outside, in the driveway.Most of the guests had been evacuated by then, but over 100 people, including hotel staff and journalists, were caught in the midst of the action.Senator Antonio Trillanes, who led a failed mutiny in 2003 against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and was elected to the upper house in May, was hauled away in plastic wrist restraints.Fellow mutineers, including around two dozen soldiers, a priest and a retired bishop, were also arrested along with scores of journalists.Authorities said the journalists would be freed after identity checks.”We are going out for the sake of the safety of everybody,” Trillanes earlier told reporters.”For your sake, because we will not live with our conscience if some of you get hurt or get killed in the crossfire.We cannot afford that,” Trillanes said.There were no reports of any casualties.”The wrong ways of some does not speak well for the nation or the armed forces and the police,” Arroyo said in a brief television address, her only public reaction.”Just like before, we will impose the full force of the law strictly and without favour.”It was the latest in a series of coups in the Philippines since the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos two decades ago.It started when Trillanes and some other soldiers walked out of their own trial for the 2003 mutiny, escorted by guards assigned to keep them from escaping.They marched to the Peninsula Hotel in Manila’s Makati financial district and took over the building, calling for the overthrow of President Arroyo.”We have been witness and victims of the kind of ruthlessness this administration is giving to the people.Now, like soldiers we are going to face this,” Trillanes told reporters, when asked if he was ready to face fresh charges over this incident.Journalists trying to do live phone-ins spluttered and covered their faces with handkerchiefs as the tear gas rose from the lobby to higher floors.Meanwhile, the government imposed a midnight-to-dawn curfew in Manila yesterday, an official said.The curfew will be enforced in the capital and surrounding areas between midnight and 05h00 am, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno told reporters.”Depending on the security situation it may not be necessary to impose it for a second day, but we will have to wait and see,” he said, adding it would allow the authorities to conduct “follow-up” security operations.”There may still be threats that are out there and we would like to ensure in our follow-up operations that these threats will be addressed,” he said.Puno did not specify what these other threats were but said the renegade soldiers had apparently been joined at the hotel by armed sympathisers, suspected to be former military men.This curfew was “a necessary inconvenience that we must undergo to ensure the return to peace and order is permanent,” said Puno, adding that checkpoints would be set up in the areas covered by the curfew.Nampa-Reuters-AFPThe troops fired teargas into the lobby of the hotel and used an armoured personnel carrier (APC) to batter down its glass doors before storming in.Four other APCs were stationed outside, in the driveway.Most of the guests had been evacuated by then, but over 100 people, including hotel staff and journalists, were caught in the midst of the action.Senator Antonio Trillanes, who led a failed mutiny in 2003 against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and was elected to the upper house in May, was hauled away in plastic wrist restraints.Fellow mutineers, including around two dozen soldiers, a priest and a retired bishop, were also arrested along with scores of journalists.Authorities said the journalists would be freed after identity checks.”We are going out for the sake of the safety of everybody,” Trillanes earlier told reporters.”For your sake, because we will not live with our conscience if some of you get hurt or get killed in the crossfire.We cannot afford that,” Trillanes said.There were no reports of any casualties.”The wrong ways of some does not speak well for the nation or the armed forces and the police,” Arroyo said in a brief television address, her only public reaction.”Just like before, we will impose the full force of the law strictly and without favour.”It was the latest in a series of coups in the Philippines since the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos two decades ago.It started when Trillanes and some other soldiers walked out of their own trial for the 2003 mutiny, escorted by guards assigned to keep them from escaping.They marched to the Peninsula Hotel in Manila’s Makati financial district and took over the building, calling for the overthrow of President Arroyo.”We have been witness and victims of the kind of ruthlessness this administration is giving to the people.Now, like soldiers we are going to face this,” Trillanes told reporters, when asked if he was ready to face fresh charges over this incident.Journalists trying to do live phone-ins spluttered and covered their faces with handkerchiefs as the tear gas rose from the lobby to higher floors.Meanwhile, the government imposed a midnight-to-dawn curfew in Manila yesterday, an official said.The curfew will be enforced in the capital and surrounding areas between midnight and 05h00 am, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno told reporters.”Depending on the security situation it may not be necessary to impose it for a second day, but we will have to wait and see,” he said, adding it would allow the authorities to conduct “follow-up” security operations.”There may still be threats that are out there and we would like to ensure in our follow-up operations that these threats will be addressed,” he said.Puno did not specify what these other threats were but said the renegade soldiers had apparently been joined at the hotel by armed sympathisers, suspected to be former military men.This curfew was “a necessary inconvenience that we must undergo to ensure the return to peace and order is permanent,” said Puno, adding that checkpoints would be set up in the areas covered by the curfew.Nampa-Reuters-AFP