Another Philippines Coup Plot Fails

[brooklynite]

Source: Time Magazine

The leader of the plot, Senator Antonio Trillanes, had done a similar thing once before. In 2003, as a navy Lieutenant, he was involved in the Oakwood Mutiny, in which a group of rebellious military personnel occupied a luxury apartment complex in Makati demanding that Arroyo step down.

Trillanes, who over the summer was elected to the Senate while behind bars awaiting trial for his involvement in the mutiny, was in the Makti regional trial Court Thursday listening to evidence against him in the Oakwood plot. At around midday, he and a group of heavily armed soldiers stormed out, making their way to Makati's Peninsula Hotel. The group was also joined by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona. "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 government and start a new life in a new Philippines," Guingona told reporters. "The dice is cast. Thus we make this fateful step of removing Mrs. Macapagal Arroyo from the presidency and undertake the formation of a new government."

The abrupt departure took witnesses at the courtroom by surprise. "We take exception to the utter laxity of the security sent by the Armed Forces of the Philippines," State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera, who was present at the hearing during the walkout, told reporters at the Department of Justice. "This would not have happened without the laxity and familiarity with the accused, and we will be investigating more in detail this angle." While it is still not clear if the soldiers were Trillanes' guards or whether they had arranged to rendezvous with him at the courtroom, Navera said there appeared to be "some influence on the military and police security detail," noting that the security men just surrounded the accused and "did nothing."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1689001,00.html?imw=Y

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Its a good thing our troops are available to respond to all the other allies we have whose democracies need shoring up...