Palace rejects Velarde's link to coup plot

Malacanang, the presidential palace, has no knowledge of the two intelligence reports which linked charismatic religious lay leader Mike Velarde to a reported coup plot against President Gloria Arroyo, a senior official said.

"It might have been made by someone who wanted to draw a wedge between President Arroyo and Brother Mike Velarde," said acting Press Secretary Silverstre Afable.

Velarde, leader of the El Shaddai Movement which boasts of one million members, allegedly agreed to finance the plot called Coplan Brother, the Manila Times said, adding the one-page intelligence report was prepared by Superintendent Prudencio Regis, head of the Intelligence Group of the National Capital Regional Police Office.

Velarde hosted a meeting of the alleged coup plotters in his office on Amorsolo street in Makati, financial district on April 10, according to the intelligence report dated April 12.

He discussed the plot with former army chief Lt. General Jaime delos Santos, former police chief and now senator elect Panfilo Lacson, and Senator Gregorio Honasan.

Other prominent personalities at the meeting were Jesus Crispin Remulla, spokesman of Estrada's Filipino People's Party (Partido ng Masang Pilipino), Wilson Fortaleza, Sanlakas president, and Arnold Orbina, spokesman of pro-Estrada's People's Movement Against Poverty.

Also in the meeting were Supt. Asper Cabula, from Lacson's office, and Butch Belgica, from the office of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza. Velarde was quoted as saying that Arroyo would not last until 2003.

The report identified Delos Santos as the one planning the armed component of the plot. He has been holding a series of meetings with Lacson and Honasan for the "conglomeration of (the plot's) armed components," the report said.

The report quoted Cabula as saying that the groups of General Delos Santos were studying the present political and social instability of the administration.

Once there is a signal for the start of the plot, mobilisation of anti-government forces will be undertaken by groups which hold office of the Brothers' Keepers Corp (BKC), the report said.

The PMAP and other cause-oriented groups that were formerly allied with Arroyo will hold a series of violent rallies in front of the Supreme Court, the report said.

De los Santos reportedly asked for a briefing on the new plans of the opposition and the camp of Estrada on the destabilisation plot, the report added.

According to the report, an interim para-military civilian junta would then take over the government at the end of the plot.

The report identified others who allegedly attended the April 10 meeting as Tribune publisher Ninez Cacho-Olivares, columnists Lito Banayo and Herman Tiu Laurel, and Linda Olaguer Montayre, secretary general of the Philippine Consultative Assembly (PCA).

Another intelligence report dated February 12 said the same group had met to discuss the plot at the house of Velarde in the southern suburban Tagaytay Highlands on January 20.

The intelligence information was part of a monitoring project of the police and the military on members of the opposition who are considered "hostile" to the government, the report said.

"Any Tom, Dick, and Harry can make a report and attribute it to anybody. I did not make that report," Regis said.

"I do not respond to garbage. The report is highly improbable. The intelligence community must be daydreaming," said de los Santos when asked to comment on his alleged participation in the plot.

"It is another unintelligent report of the police," said Fortaleza, adding: "The police is linking Sanlakas, a consistent opposition, to these so-called plots.

Obviously, that is black propaganda against us." Thousands of pro-Estrada protesters almost succeeded in toppling Arroyo during the failed siege of Malacanang on May 1 last year.