By Xinhua
Manila : The Philippines government Thursday condemned the protest staged by a group of former coup plotters and said it would not allow another mutiny to happen like the 2003 Oakwood mutiny in Makati City.
A group of military officers, including newly elected opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig Gen Danilo Lim, walked out of a courtroom in Makati City Thursday morning and began a standoff with the government in a five-star hotel, asking for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo over alleged corruption and misrule.
Presidential legal counsel chief Sergio Apostol said the government would take the “necessary action” of law once they gather enough evidence against Trillanes and Lim.
“The necessary action will be taken. We cannot repeat what they did in Oakwood,” he said in a radio interview. “We will see what happens. We cannot say now what rules have been violated. We will know what to do,” he said.
Trillanes was one of the leaders of the Magdalo group that staged a short-lived mutiny at the Oakwood Hotel in Makati City in July 2003. After that, he and his fellow Magdalo leaders were charged with rebellion. Lim was accused of plotting a coup in early 2006.
President Arroyo, who was earlier in San Pablo City for the Local Peace and Security Assembly, left aboard a helicopter after delivering her speech and headed straight to Malacanang presidential palace to preside over a crisis meeting over the situation, according to official Philippines News Agency.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro branded as illegal the action mounted by the small group of military personnel and ordered the military to re-arrest them.
The Philippine military has also appealed to the public to remain calm and said the military was solidly behind President Arroyo.