Makati City: Government forces stormed a popular hotel in the central business district of Makati City late on Thursday afternoon and arrested several high-profile figures, including journalists, a senator and a general who had called on the army to rise in revolt.
At around 5pm local time, government troops backed by armoured personnel carriers arrived at the gates of the Manila Peninsula Hotel at Ayala Avenue and quickly overpowered a group led by Senator Antonio Trillanes III and Brigadier General Danilo Lim that had held out for most of the day.
Earlier in the day, at around 10am local time, Trillanes, Lim and 13 other junior military officers stormed out of a Makati City court protesting against their trial on charges of rebellion and intent to destabilise the government of President Gloria Arroyo.
Trillanes, a former navy officer, had led a mutiny in Makati City in July 2003 and, despite being barred from campaigning, won a seat in the Senate during the May 2007 elections. Lim, for his part, is undergoing trial for allegedly plotting a coup in February 2006.
Joined by armed guards
Wearing armbands associated with Trillanes' Magdalo group, the renegades, along with former vice president Teofisto Guingona, marched on the streets of Makati City in the rain and were soon joined by several armed soldiers supposed to serve as their military police guards.
Judge Oscar Pimentel, taking the impromptu walkout by the defendants into account, ordered the “re-arrest'' of Trillanes and the other detainees by 3pm.
During the assault on the hotel, police directed tear gas canisters into the hotel lobby's glass windows as sporadic shooting rang out from nearby establishments.
By 5.30pm, National Capital Region police chief Geary Barrias declared that the situation was “under control.''
“The situation is very much under control and due process will be carried out,'' Barrias said.
The soldiers involved in the stand-off and the journalists who identified with the group were taken away in separate buses.
Among those who were apprehended were members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. Their whereabouts remained unclear at the time of going to press.
Former actress and cancer survivor Bibeth Ortesa, who was among those arrested, along with lawyer Argee Guevarra and activist-priest Father Robert Reyes, said they had joined the march without any idea that they would be arrested.
“Our eyes are hurting from the tear gas which they lobbed at us without warning,'' Ortesa said in an interview aired by GMA Television.
Trillanes, in an interview with reporters, said he would face the consequences of his action.
“I will face the charges,'' he said. “Like soldiers, we are going to face this.''
Arroyo orders curfew to calm nerves in Makati City
President Gloria Arroyo ordered a curfew from midnight last night until 5am this morning after a purported coup bid led to dozens of arrests.
According to Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Arroyo ordered the curfew while also directing the police to set up strategic checkpoints in Metro Manila and at entry points to Central Luzon and the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal provinces.
National Capital Region Defence Command Chief, Lieutenant General Arnulfo Mesa, said the declaration of the curfew in Makati City did not imply that the country had been placed under martial law.
“We will enforce order so that we can carry on with our lives normally,'' he said.
Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, meanwhile,
defended the arrests of several members of the media who had ventured to cover the events unfolding at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City.
Teodoro said that several of the journalists had been taken into custody to ascertain if they were indeed on press duty.
“We are verifying if they are legitimate members of the media,'' he said, adding: “The rights of the persons in custody will be respected.''
