ZAMBOANGA CITY/MANILA, 12 May 2005 — About 190 soldiers implicated in a mutiny nearly two years ago pleaded guilty yesterday to a lesser charge and were sentenced by a court martial to a year of hard labor and demotion in rank.
They also were denied two-thirds of their pay for three months after they admitted violating “good order and military discipline” and showing disrespect to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and their superiors.
The soldiers were part of a group of about 300 troops, led by young officers mostly from elite special forces, who occupied the ritzy Oakwood Hotel and a nearby shopping mall in the capital’s Makati financial district and rigged the area with bombs on July 27, 2003.
The government said the action was part of a larger coup conspiracy. The officers claimed they were demanding the resignation of Arroyo and other officials over alleged corruption, but denied a power grab.
The government has filed a separate charge of coup d’etat against 31 alleged coup leaders, mostly with the rank of captain, with a civilian court. Convicted coup leaders could face 40 years in prison.
The soldiers cheered when chief Judge Col. Jose Recuenco announced the court will recommend to the chief of staff their immediate release after considering time they served in detention.
Commenting on the sentences, Arroyo said the court’s decision was “part of justice with reconciliation.”
“These are just the followers. The leaders are still facing the full brunt of civilian and military law,” she told reporters.
Military prosecutor Col. Al Perreras said 184 enlisted men had admitted to a lighter offense as part of a plea bargain.
A civilian fact-finding commission concluded the mutiny was not a spontaneous protest, but part of a larger plot to seize power from Arroyo and appoint a 15-member junta.
It said the coup attempt was rooted in corruption and politicization of the Philippine military since the early 1970s under late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It also warned the armed forces “could implode and collapse with unpredictable consequences” if the causes were not addressed.
‘Solid Support’
Meanwhile, the commander of the Philippine Army’s elite Special Operations Command yesterday said any attempt to topple the government would not succeed and that the military is solid in supporting President Arroyo.
“We warn coup plotters that any attempt to grab power from the government will not succeed,” said Maj. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, who heads the 4,000-strong elite soldiers under the Special Operations Command, based in Fort Magsaysay in the northern Philippines.
Esperon arrived in the southern port city of Zamboanga yesterday to supervise the offensive against communist insurgents in Surigao del Sur province, where special operations troops are fighting the New People’s Army (NPA). He also inspected the army's elite units in military's Southern Command headquarters in Zamboanga City.
While at the Southcom, he was asked about calls for Arroyo to resign. Former defense chief Fortunato Abat demanded the president resign and that a military-civilian junta takes over the government.
“Don’t believe Abat, he’s an old man and nobody is supporting him. He’s a failed politician,” said Esperon, who took over as new commander of the SOC late last year.
Esperon, one of the most decorated general in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, was the former commander of the army’s 7th Infantry Division in northern Luzon.
