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Friday, Nov 30, 2007
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A coup bid that wasn’t in Manila

P. S. Suryanarayana

— Photo: AP

TAKING POSITION: Members of the police Special Action Force behind an armoured personnel carrier as they begin an assault on the Peninsula Hotel in Manila on Thursday.

SINGAPORE: A near-comical coup attempt against Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, staged under the glare of television cameras in Manila on Thursday was foiled, when troops stormed the hotel the rebels had taken control of. Manila was later placed under a midnight-to-dawn curfew.

The high drama, which was at one stage described by the authorities as “a commotion,” began early in the day, when soldiers, standing trial for their alleged role in a coup plot in 2003, stormed out of the courtroom. Accompanied by their guards, they marched through Manila’s fashionable financial district and reached a luxury hotel, which they “seized.”

The unhindered march by the rebels through the streets was described by the authorities as “a protest march,” and the hotel guests were evacuated unharmed.

Meanwhile, as armed police and loyal soldiers surrounded the hotel complex, the self-styled coup masters announced their game-plans. Danilo Lim, a brigadier-general, said: “Today, we address all loving and decent Filipinos to announce that now is the time to end the sufferings and miseries inflicted upon us by this illegitimate Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Government and start a new life in a new Philippines. The die is cast.”

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a senior-grade navy lieutenant who became a politician, told his compatriots: “You have been witnesses and victims of the kind of ruthlessness this administration had been giving to the people. Now, like soldiers, we are going to face this [situation].”

Shortly afterwards, the troops, sensing that there was no popular support for the “plotters” on the streets of Manila, moved into the hotel complex in a hail of teargas and gunfire. Two armoured personnel carriers rammed into the hotel complex. And, the operation ended in the surrender of all the rebels.

At the height of the stand-off, which lasted several hours, the military pledged total loyalty to the President and her administration. And, for the record, the latest rebellion was counted as the seventh coup attempt since 1986. Ms. Arroyo’s administration has been punctuated by aborted impeachment attempts in the Congress and by accusations of corruption, nepotism and human rights violations.

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