Philippines lifts ‘state of rebellion’

CEBU, Philippines — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was targeted for assassination in a July 27 coup attempt, yesterday lifted a “state of rebellion” she declared after the aborted uprising.

“The threat has abated,” Mrs. Arroyo told an audience at her presidential palace after a ceremony honoring soldiers who defended the government during the coup attempt.

The state of rebellion had allowed the warrantless arrests of suspected coup plotters and authorized the military to quell any further disturbances.

While the bloodless coup attempt fizzled within 24 hours, Manila business groups argued that the state-of-rebellion declaration was sending the wrong signal to foreign investors.

Mrs. Arroyo, who has vowed not to run in next year’s presidential election, also authorized the military to declassify information about the attempted coup, which led to the arrests of more than 300 officers and enlisted men.

All face civilian charges of rebellion. About half are expected to be court-martialed.

Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, vice chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told a national television audience that the leaders of the uprising had planned to assassinate Mrs. Arroyo and install a 15-member junta led by “somebody with the code name Kuya,” or older brother.

“Kuya referred to Senator Gregorio Honasan,” Gen. Garcia said. Mr. Honasan, who received amnesty in 1995 for his role in leading a bloody failed coup against President Corazon Aquino in 1989, has denied any role in the latest putsch but remains in hiding.

Gen. Garcia said the coup plotters initially planned to strike Aug. 2, using marines and members of the Navy Special Warfare Group to storm Malacanang Palace, where Mrs. Arroyo lives and works.

He said mutinous officers within Mrs. Arroyo’s Presidential Security Group were assigned to lead the “convoy of the president near where [other] members of the group would be lying in wait to conduct an ambush.”

They also planned to take over military and police headquarters, the airport, TV and radio stations and major roads, the general said.

But when Mrs. Arroyo learned of the plot and ordered the arrests of several junior officers on July 26, the mutineers quickly switched to an alternative plan, seizing a plush shopping mall and apartment complex in the early morning of July 27.

Mr. Honasan has been charged with participating in the coup conspiracy, as have a mistress of ex-President Joseph Estrada and one of the former president’s Cabinet members.

Meanwhile, military officials said they are closer to capturing Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, an al Qaeda-linked bomb-maker who escaped from police headquarters in Manila last month.

Three gunmen suspected of helping hide al-Ghozi were killed early Sunday in Lanao del Norte in the southern Philippines, military officials said.

Al-Ghozi is a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror network with ties to al Qaeda. He was convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison for his role in the Dec. 30, 2000, bombings in Manila that killed nearly two dozen people.

The escape of al-Ghozi from a jail inside police headquarters was a major embarrassment for Mrs. Arroyo.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.