Eight people including six Philippines military officers were detained yesterday in a raid that may have foiled a plot to attack the legislature during an address by President Gloria Arroyo later this month, the authorities said.
A team of soldiers and police swooped on a house in Manila near the House of Representatives complex before dawn and arrested the eight, seizing guns, bombs, documents and a blueprint of the government building, they said.
"As we all know, the state of the nation address of the president is approaching," national police chief Oscar Calderon told reporters at a news conference.
Arroyo is set to deliver the annual policy address to the legislature on July 24.
The group rented the house several weeks ago and the authorities pounced after a three-day stakeout, military officials said.
"It arouses your interest why they would rent a house there at this point in time, and then we found this blueprint of the [House of Representatives building] in their possession," said armed forces chief of staff General Generoso Senga. "It's too early to jump into conclusions, but we are looking at bits of pieces of information and we are trying to put them together."
The rebel officers were said to be members of Magdalo, a military faction linked to a foiled coup plot against Arroyo that was uncovered earlier this year, as well as another coup attempt in July 2003.
Police have also named the group as potentially responsible for a recent spate of bombings in Manila.
Calderon said police ordnance experts would compare the high explosives that were seized in the raid with evidence previously gathered from the blasts "to determine if the components found at the blast scenes are the same."
Arroyo purged the military brass and filed charges of rebellion and attempting a coup d'etat against a number of opposition political figures in February after accusing the officers and politicians of plotting with communist guerrillas to topple her.
The arrested officers were named as Captain Nathaniel Rabonza, First Lieutenants Patricio Bumidang and Sonny Sarmiento, Second Lieutenants Angelbert Gay and Aldrin Baldonado, and one officer identified only as Lieutenant Sabada.
Rabonza, Bumidang and Sarmiento, along with another rebel officer, First Lieutenant Lawrence San Juan, escaped from a military jail on Jan. 17 this year. He was arrested a month later.
The detained civilians were lawyer Christopher Belmonte -- who had been out on bail on rebellion charges following his arrest alongside San Juan in February -- and Mike Yamzon.
Calderon hoped that the arrests reduce fears of coup plots.
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