Assault Ends Philippines Standoff
Heavily armed national police officers poured steady automatic gunfire and teargas into a luxury hotel in the Philippines capital Thursday, where a group of high-ranking military officers had holed up with dozens of supporting troops to demand the ouster of the country's president.
After about 20 minutes of heavy assault, the leader of the dissidents said that he and his troops would surrender. Live television broadcasts showed national police officers, who support the president, streaming into the building as clouds of teargas poured out.
"For the safety of everyone, we're going out ... because we cannot live with our conscience if some of you get hurt in the crossfire,'' said Antonio Trillanes, one of those on trial and the leader of the dissident group.
The dissidents were later arrested by the national police.
CBS News reporter Gaby Tabunar in Manila reports that Trillanes, a retired soldier who was recently elected as a lawmaker, and several senior military officers defied an initial deadline to surrender after storming out of their coup trial and then took over the up-market hotel.
The government has imposed a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew in the Manila area.
The dissidents accused President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of corruption and demanded she resign, reports Tabunar.
The first shots were heard about 75 minutes after the deadline passed. SWAT teams and troops used armored personnel carriers as cover to move into position for an assault. Soon after, small explosions were heard at the rear of the hotel as national police shot teargas into the building.
At least two people were injured during the siege as national police forces entered the hotel, according to the Associated Press.
Joined by other dissident officers and leaders from the opposition and the left, the leaders of the foiled coup attempt clearly were trying to foster the Philippines third "people power" revolt, making phone calls and sending cell phone text messages seeking to generate crowds to support them.
But as the day wore on, few people turned out for the latest effort to oust Arroyo, who has survived at least three coup plots and three impeachment efforts during nearly seven tumultuous years in power.
Manila Police Chief Geary Barias had told the dissidents to vacate the hotel by 3 p.m. (0300 Eastern) or face arrest on new warrants for contempt of court.
The deadline passed with the officers refusing to leave and posting uniformed troops with M-16 rifles guarding stairways leading to the second floor of the Peninsula hotel where the dissidents set up a command center in a function room.
The trial is over a 2003 insurrection in which troops commandeered a shopping center and demanded Arroyo's ouster. Trillanes, a senator-elect since last May's elections, campaigned from his prison cell where he was confined since his arrest in 2003, reports Tabunar.
Hundreds of police and troops were deployed outside the hotel. Hotel guests and staff were evacuated, and police asked hundreds of journalists to leave for their own safety.
Supporters of the dissident officers held out hope that they might succeed in the latest effort to oust Arroyo.
"This is like EDSA," former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, an opposition campaigner, said after using a glass of water to toast a victory by anti-Arroyo forces. EDSA is the name of the highway that was the site of the country's two "people power" revolts.
It was unclear where the rest of the often-restive military's loyalties lay.
"My orders now are to rearrest 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. The Presidential Security Group, which provides security at the presidential palace, went on red alert.
Escorted by military police, who apparently did not prevent them from leaving the court, the defendants marched to the Peninsula hotel and pushed away guards at the entrance.
They were joined by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim - suspected of involvement in another failed coup plot last year - who issued a statement urging Arroyo to resign and asking the armed forces to withdraw support for her.
In the statement, read on nationwide TV, Lim called for the formation of a new government. Lim is the commander of the Philippines Marines.
"Mrs. Arroyo stole the presidency from Estrada, and later manipulated the results of 2004 elections," Lim said.
Arroyo took over the presidency when predecessor Joseph Estrada was ousted in the second "people power" revolt in January 2001, and opponents have criticized the legitimacy of her rule ever since. She also has been fighting allegations that she rigged the 2004 elections that gave her a six-year term.
"We tried to restore legitimacy, but she used naked power ... to frustrate us," Lim said. "We should use all we can to prevent the sliding back into corruption. We are withdrawing support from this government and other units will also do so."
Former Vice President Guingona, left-wing leaders and two Roman Catholic bishops joined the military men at the hotel.
"We have to bring people here to guard our perimeters," Trillanes told them. A leftist leader told him, after a phone call, that 3,000 members of one union were on the way.
National police chief Avelino Razon urged people to stay away from the hotel.
The officers on trial were among 300 soldiers who took over the ritzy Oakwood hotel and a nearby shopping center in Makati in July 2003, rigging the area with bombs and demanding Arroyo's resignation. They denounced the government and military corruption, but were accused of staging a failed coup. They surrendered after the daylong uprising.