Former president Joseph Estrada, his wife, senator-elect Loi, and his children were behind the recently concluded military mutiny which was meant to reinstate the former right after a power grab, but he would eventually be ousted for the establishment of a 15-man military junta to be led by opposition senator Gregorio Honasan, two senior officials told a newly created presidential probe body.

Major General Pedro Cabuay, the new head of the Intelligence office of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told members of a presidential fact finding commission that the three vehicles that were used to aid in the transporting of rebel soldiers and in bringing the things they needed during the mutiny belonged to the family members of Estrada.

One of the vehicles was a van which carried the insigna of the Philippine senate and a plate number that belonged to Senator Loi Ejercito, said Cabuay.

The rebel soldiers also used vehicles that belonged to Jinggoy, Estrada's son and former mayor of suburban San Juan, Cabuay said.

The suspected vehicles were seen in suburban Cavite where 100 soldiers managed to enter an armoury of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

"If they were not intercepted, they would have succeeded in bringing planes and tankers to the soldiers who took over the Oakwood Tower in Makati (the financial district) late July 26," said Cabuay.

Earlier, reports said that much of the equipment that was found at the Oakwood Tower which was occupied by the rebel soldiers until late July 27, was traced from a supplier, the SM department store, which admitted that products were delivered to Jinggoy's house prior to the July 26-27 coup plot.

In a document, which was recovered by investigators, it said that the rebel soldiers would take Estrada from his cell, at the veterans Memorial medical Centre in suburban Quezon City, and reinstall him in office, in Malacanang, the presidential palace.

But after three days, Estrada would be ousted from office for the establishment of a 15-man military junta to be led by Honasan, said Cabuay who quoted from excerpts of the document.

The plan was to make these events happen on August 4, but the plotters made their moves earlier because government authorities had uncovered the plot as early as July 10, said Cabuay.

Meanwhile, Roilo Golez, the National Security Adviser, said that Honasan and the young military officers launched a mutiny to oust President Arroyo for the purpose of initially reinstating Estrada to power.

He did not say why Estrada would allow that to happen. He has been incarcerated since his arrest for the $78 million plunder case filed against him by the government in April 2001.

"The assessment of the intelligence community at that time was that Estrada was important to the group in terms of funding requirements and the need to combine the civilian supporters of the ousted leader with the military component as soon as the coup unfolded," Golez explained.

"It is clear that had the rebels succeeded in their scheme, we would have faced two chilling prospects: quite possibly a dead president and a military dictatorship," Golez added.

But the plan did not succeed because the government managed to arrest some 300 rebel soldiers and to raid several homes of the other civilian supporters such as Mike Cardenas, a former aide of Estrada, and Laarni Enriquez, his mistress, said Golez.

In a separate event, President Arroyo said the recently created fact finding commission will not only probe the real causes of the military mutiny, adding that her purpose is to revamp the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

"The respective commanders of the coup participants should be made to feel accountability for the actions of the participants under their command," Arroyo said, adding the plan will help end the emergence of rebel soldiers in the country.