With the recent taking over of Peninsula Manila Hotel as coup hideout, the Philippine Department of Justice filed rebellion charges to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, former Vice President Teofisto Guingona and 34 other army officers, Church members and civilians.
Personalities included in the charged list were brigadier general, priest, former premier state university president, veteran actress and a brother of the senator. They were identified by the police as Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, Bishop Emeritus Julio Labayen, Fr. Robert Reyes, former University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo, artist Elizabeth Orteza Siguion-Reyna and Antonio Trillanes III, brother of the senator.
The seven-hour hotel standoff resulted in no-bail recommendation for the 36 accused. Accused senior citizen former Vice President Guingona, 79, was sent to the hospital due to an unspecified sickness and Bishop Labayen was released through the efforts of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, an organization of bishops in the Philippines.
The Philippine National Police is currently hunting four other soldiers who escaped the hotel premises during the raid including a marine captain implicated in earlier coup attempts. In an effort to speed up the capture of Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, the government bid a P1-million reward to whoever will give a lead to where he is.
A hold-departure order has been issued to 50 individuals involved in the complaint; although some of them were temporarily released in the duration of the investigation.
The Department of Justice authorities said Sen. Trillanes invitation to the public to participate in their objective of overthrowing the Arroyo government and form a new government is a seditious act and only shows a conspiracy and mutual intention to create political instability in the country.
