‘Rebels wanted 15-man junta’

Had the 321 soldiers who staged a 20-hour mutiny last Sunday succeeded in a planned power grab, they would have set up a 15-man junta to rule the country, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said yesterday.

Testifying before a congressional inquiry on the July 27 mutiny, Golez said documents seized from the soldiers revealed that the first stage involved seizing power through violence. This would be followed by the setting up of a 15-member "national recovery council."

"Phase Two calls for the setting up of a 15-man National Recovery Council, actually a junta, composed of men and women of integrity," Golez said quoting a manifesto, entitled "The New Revolution, Towards a New Philippine Order."

Noting that the council "appears to be a junta that shall govern the country and with the chairman as head of state," Golez said there was no mention of elections or how the members of the junta would be selected.

Calling themselves "new Filipino heroes," the mutineers said in their manifesto "the actual revolution starts with the assumption of power."

"This will be done through all means necessary and must be absolute. This will not be confirmed with the ambit of the constitutional framework... if possible, damage to life and property will be avoided. But when it becomes necessary in the accomplishment of the mission, the patriots will not hesitate," Golez quoted the manifesto.

"It involves the assumption of power by any means, including extra-constitutional, including force and violence," Golez said.

During the inquiry, the congressmen initially argued whether they should continue the public hearing without the presence of the captains and lieutenants who led the mutiny.

But Abaya said he could not guarantee the security of the rebel leaders outside of the military intelligence headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Instead, he suggested that the House defense committee conduct an executive session at the high-security compound of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

Abaya said at least one of the junior officers who was arrested in connection with the mutiny had received death threats.

"If you have gotten into this group, there seems to be a compact among them that they do not have to reveal the plot. Otherwise, they, or even their families, were threatened with bodily harm," Abaya told congressmen.

Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes also admitted he could not rule out another mutiny but assured the jittery nation that it would not succeed.

"Although we cannot assure that it will not happen anymore... any attempt like that of Sunday’s will not and will never be successful," Reyes said an earlier interview with dzMM radio station.

Reyes reiterated that he will not resign despite the demands of the mutineers.

"I think that my resigning because of wild and unsubstantiated and credulous charges made by soldiers who have been manipulated into holding our country hostage is intrinsically wrong," Reyes said.

Reyes lamented that some sectors are "lionizing" the rebel leaders as reformers when they are just power-hungry opportunists who were duped by equally selfish politicians. — With Jaime Laude