A Philippine military investigator yesterday called for the court-martial of 165 soldiers and Marines, including 40 officers, for allegedly plotting a February coup attempt against Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
The officers have all been relieved of their posts in elite military units and put under the custody of their service commanders while they undergo a pre-trial investigation leading to a court-martial, said Rear Admiral Rufino Lopez, the military's inspector-general.
Lopez did not release any names during a news conference, but did not dispute suggestions that those to be prosecuted include Major-General Renato Miranda, Brigadier General Danilo Lim and Colonel Arnel Querubin.
The officers plotted a "coup" against Arroyo, he told a news conference.
Miranda was sacked as commandant of the Marines, Querubin lost his command of a Marine brigade, and Lim was stripped of his post as commander of an elite army counter-terrorist regiment called the Scout Rangers after being implicated in an alleged left-right plot against Arroyo on Feb. 24.
Removed
"Officers and enlisted personnel found guilty of participation in any destabilization activities against the government should be removed from the military service," Lopez said.
According to government investigators, Lim taped a television broadcast to announce his "withdrawal of support" for Arroyo, who is the military's commander-in-chief.
He then supposedly would lead his men on a street march to join a planned opposition demonstration to call for her resignation.
Miranda was sacked from his post in the aftermath of the February 24 plot, supposedly for failing to prevent Marine units from taking part in the plotting.
Querubin protested that sacking by mounting a tense standoff with government forces at the Marine headquarters in Manila two days later, but he and his men eventually stood down without bloodshed.
State of emergency
The plot, which supposedly involved elements of the armed communist insurgency, prompted Arroyo to declare a week-long state of emergency. She survived an impeachment complaint in Congress last year for alleged vote-rigging.
The Arroyo government has widened its probe of the coup attempt with the justice department summoning several prominent business, church and political personalities to an investigating panel to try to find supporters.
A group of junior officers was arrested earlier this month for links to a failed 2003 military mutiny and for allegedly planning to seize control of the House of Representatives and take legislators hostage next week.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in