Nov 29: Philippines military officers led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes and Army Brigadier General Danilo Lim surrendered, after they held captive dozens of people in a posh hotel in Manila due to recent outbreak of imbroglio for demanding President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo resignation on Thursday.
Earlier military officers defied a deadline to surrender after storming the hotel. The dissidents were seen making phone calls and message to generate support among crowds against Arroyo.
Manila Police Chief Geary Barias told the dissidents to vacate the hotel by 3 p.m. or face arrest for contempt of court.
The deadline passed with the officers refusing to leave and posting uniformed troops to guard stairways leading to the second floor of the Peninsula hotel where the dissidents set up a command center in a function room.
Antonio Trillanes a senator among dissidents said "One thing I can assure you is we have more than enough willpower, fighting spirit to bring this government down.”
“We want change,” he added.
“My orders now are to re-arrest them and take them back to custody, to apply the law," Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said. "We want to assure our people that we will apply the full force of the law to maintain peace and order in the area and the rest of the country."
Arroyo called an emergency Cabinet meeting; she had survived three military coups in her six-year term.
The earlier suspect Lim too joined other and asked Armed forces to oust her by withdrawing their support.
He said, "Mrs. Arroyo stole the presidency from Estrada, and later manipulated the results of 2004 elections.”
Arroyo is known to have taken as President after Joseph Estrada was overthrown in 2001. She has been also charged of rigging the 2004 elections that gave her a six-year term.
Earlier in 2003 too there was a failed coup against Arroyo but subsequently given up after a daylong turbulence.
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