Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said she would push for the maximum penalty for rebel soldiers who carried out an alleged coup attempt against her government. Arroyo said she was for "total justice based on due process" as officials said dozens more rebel soldiers and civilian conspirators involved in the plot would be prosecuted. "The secondary aim of the mutineers if they did not succeed in toppling the government is to weaken national leadership," Arroyo said in a statement. "We shall prove them wrong. We shall seek the maximum penalty for those who planned, led and executed this misadventure." Senior figures in the alleged plot could face life imprisonment if found guilty.
| Shooting them would work better. Ask al-Ghozi. |
Thirty-eight more soldiers would be charged with rebellion in civilian courts, in addition to 321 colleagues indicted earlier for their brief takeover of a section of the Makati financial district on July 27, National Bureau of Investigation chief Reynaldo Wycoco said. "Apparently when they (military authorities) conducted a headcount and processing of the soldiers, there were 38 others who were missed out," Wycoco said on ABS-CBN television. The mutiny swiftly fizzled out after failing to rally wider support, but the government maintains it was part of a larger plot allegedly led by opposition Senator Gregorio Honasan to unseat and possibly assassinate President Arroyo and replace her with a 15-member junta. It brought the total of soldiers detained for the mutiny to 359. The military's inspector general on Wednesday recommended separate court-martial proceedings against 45 military officers involved in the siege. Prosecutors have also filed criminal complaints for rebellion against Honasan, who has gone into hiding, as well as a former member of cabinet of detained former president Joseph Estrada. |