The Philippine military yesterday renewed its pledge of loyalty to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo amid a swirl of fresh coup rumors fueled by allegations that she rigged last year's elections.
Billy Bibit, a former constabulary officer detained after a failed 1989 coup, claimed a group of young officers was planning to replace Arroyo with a civilian-led caretaker government that would restore political and economic order.
But military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Buenaventura Pascual downplayed the claim, saying that the military "will remain apolitical and never allow any group or personality to use the [armed forces] in order to advance any political and personal interest."
Bibit claimed the officers, mostly captains and majors, believe Arroyo has lost moral authority after she was tainted by accusations of cheating in the last year's election.
The allegations intensified last month with the disclosure of recordings of phone conversations in which the president allegedly sought an assurance from an election commissioner that she would win by more than a million votes.
Arroyo has apologized for talking to the official, but has denied influencing the election outcome.
The scandal has upset financial markets and set off coup rumors and calls for her removal, mainly by the opposition, left-wing groups and a cluster of ex-generals.
"As cadets, these officers were taught not to lie, cheat, steal or tolerate anybody who would violate that honor code," Bibit said. "They're honor-bound to follow that code."
Pascual denied Bibit's claim, saying the ex-rebel officer may be griping over his recent removal from the Bureau of Customs because of insufficient credentials.
Bibit was released under an amnesty for rebel troops and worked as a customs official.
Another officer linked by a newspaper report to alleged anti-government plots, army Colonel Gregorio Catapang, also denied any involvement.
"The rule of the mob is the last thing that this country needs at this most trying moment of our existence," he said.
Pascual said the 115,000-strong military adheres to the chain of command, headed by Arroyo, who is the constitutional commander in chief. The Philippines has a history of coup attempts.
Two years ago, a group of disgruntled officers complaining of corruption and favoritism in the chronically underpaid and poorly equipped armed forces briefly seized an upscale hotel in Manila's financial district before surrendering.
With the latest crisis, Arroyo has faced almost daily opposition protests calling for her resignation, but they haven't matched the huge rallies that toppled late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.
The military's withdrawal of support from the former leaders was crucial to their downfall.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
CYBERCRIME, TRAFFICKING: A ‘pattern of state failures’ allowed the billion-dollar industry to flourish, including failures to investigate human rights abuses, it said Human rights group Amnesty International yesterday accused Cambodia’s government of “deliberately ignoring” abuses by cybercrime gangs that have trafficked people from across the world, including children, into slavery at brutal scam compounds. The London-based group said in a report that it had identified 53 scam centers and dozens more suspected sites across the country, including in the Southeast Asian nation’s capital, Phnom Penh. The prison-like compounds were ringed by high fences with razor wire, guarded by armed men and staffed by trafficking victims forced to defraud people across the globe, with those inside subjected to punishments including shocks from electric batons, confinement
RSS