Manila: Vice President Jejomar Binay could be criminally liable if proven that he agreed to lead or participate in a failed coup plot that right wing rebel soldiers launched against former President Gloria Arroyo in 2007, Senator Miriam Santiago said.

Vice President Binay could be charged with conspiracy to commit rebellion, a violation of Article 136 of the Penal Code, explained Santiago, adding that conviction of the crime is punishable by imprisonment of four years and a fine of P5,000 (Dh416.66)

Conspiracy to commit rebellion has a prescription period of 10 years, which means that Binay could still be charged with it until 2017, said Santiago, a former judge of a regional trial court in Metro Manila’s suburban Quezon City.

Binay should have applied for amnesty for such a crime at the defence department in 2010, after President Benigno Aquino granted amnesty to Senator Antonio Trillanes and several followers who waged failed coup plots against Arroyo in 2004 and 2007.

But a chance to claim amnesty from the presidential decree that was issued by Aquino in 2010 has expired on March 31, 2011, said Santiago.

Legal experts said Binay could not have claimed amnesty in 2010 since the participants never named him as a leader of the failed coup plots.

It is not legally important if former Makati City Mayor Binay failed to call for warm bodies to support the coup attempt of Trillanes and company because “agreeing and deciding to rise publicly and take arms against the government for the purposes of rebellion is punishable under the crime of conspiracy to commit rebellion,” explained Santiago.

In a continuing tirade against Binay, Sen. Trillanes revealed that the former mayor of Makati City wanted to head a junta that would be established by right wing rebels in a mutiny in 2007.

“He wanted to head the civilian-military junta that we were to establish after the coup,” said Trillanes,

The mutiny started to take place when Binay allegedly allowed the right-wing rebel soldiers to bring arms to the Makati City Hall, following talks that were held at the office of a judge who was to hear the trial of the right wing rebel soldiers who were charged of rebellion after they took over Oakwood Hotel on Ayala Avenue in Makati City in 2004.

Trillanes and his co-accused in the 2004 failed coup had high-powered firearms when they walked out of the court, marched on Makati Avenue and took over Peninsula Hotel on Ayala Avenue.

The ‘people power’ or ‘warm bodies’ that Binay allegedly promised did not arrive to support Trillanes and company.

Trillanes who was elected senator in 2007, also claimed several other politicians supported the failed coup plot versus Arroyo.

Binay was identified as one of them early this week when the latter refused to join a public debate which he himself had called for.

Trillanes did not say if he will also reveal the other politicians who wanted to oust Arroyo in a coup at the time.

Historians say that right wing rebels have been commodified rebellion by offering them to warring politicians.

The first right wing rebellion was backed by the Catholic Church which called on ‘people power’ and paved the way for the ouster of former strongman Ferdinand Marcos and the ascendance of Corazon Aquino to the presidency in 1986.

In 2001, former President Joseph Estrada was ousted by military-backed street protests that were waged by those who were outraged by the abrupt ending of his impeachment trial due to alleged plunder at the senate in late 2000.

Estrada latter claimed the Catholic Church also supported moves to oust him.