Troops end Philippines 'coup'

Troops stormed a five-star hotel in Manila today to remove dissident military officers who had walked out of their coup trial and demanded that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo resign.

The Philippines officers and their civilian sympathisers were later led in groups to waiting police buses.

“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,” dissident leader Antonio Trillanes said.

At least two people were injured during the assault of the Peninsula hotel. An armoured personnel carrier, earlier used as cover by the security forces, was used to crash through the closed lobby entrance.

Trillanes and his co-defendants are on trial over a 2003 uprising in which troops commandeered a shopping centre and hotel and demanded Arroyo be removed from power.

Escorted by military police, who apparently did not prevent them from leaving the court, the defendants marched to the Peninsula hotel, pushed away guards at the entrance, and set up a command centre in a second-floor function room. Armed guards were set up on stairways from the lobby.

After agreeing to surrender, Trillanes said he believed other officers in the military were tired of government corruption and will not stay quiet.

“I am convinced that most of them sympathise with our cause,” he said. “That’s enough for us now. Eventually it will be their turn to live up to their mandate as protectors of the people.”

The officers on trial were among 300 soldiers who took over the Oakwood hotel and a nearby shopping centre in Makati in July 2003, booby-trapping the area with bombs and demanding President Arroyo’s resignation. They denounced the government and military corruption, but were accused of staging a failed coup. They surrendered after the day-long uprising.