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Thursday, July 13, 2006
Military bares plot to topple Arroyo during Sona
MANILA -- The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Wednesday made public a move by a rightist group to occupy the Batasan Pambansa complex and hold hostage legislators with the aim of bringing down the Arroyo government and establish a revolutionary government.
Army spokesman Bartolome Bacarro said there are indications that the plan, dubbed "Operation Plan Trident", would be executed on July 24 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Batasan Pambansa complex.
Bacarro said the plan was contained in a document seized from members of the Magdalo Group or Makabayang Kawal Pilipino (MKP) who were arrested last Friday morning in Fairview, Quezon City.
Also seized from those arrested were a cache of explosives, a blueprint of Batasan Pambansa complex and surveillance photographs of the building that hosts the House of Representatives taken from outside the complex.
"The objective of the operational plan is to establish a political-military stronghold complemented by the massing-up of multi-sectoral groups and a broad alliance. This will be done through the seizure of the Batasan Pambansa complex and the 'hostaging' of the members of the House of Representatives," said Bacarro in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo.
Bacarro said it was not mentioned in the document as to what the military rebels would do to the President, whose resignation is being sought by various sectors following charges that she rigged the results of the May 2004 presidential elections.
"Likewise, special operations shall be conducted on selected high-value targets to interdict government forces. (The) end state of this undertaking is the bringing down of the government and pave the way in the establishment of a transitional revolutionary government," said Bacarro.
Under the plan, Bacarro said the rebels plan to employ at least four military task groups and three special operations teams to execute their objective. The task groups, he said, would be responsible in "seizing, securing and holding" of the Batasan Pambansa complex. On the other hand, the three special operations teams "are tasked to counter government forces and conduct terrorist actions on selected targets to create confusion so as to divert and delay government forces."
Bacarro said the plan would be undertaken in four phases, including the consolidation of forces at the staging areas and infiltration, seizure, securing and establishment of a stronghold at the Batasan Pambansa complex and holding members of the House as hostages.
The third phase calls for the movement of political, active and retired military leaders, religious leaders and civil society groups to St. Peter's Parish Church along Commonwealth Avenue "and declare withdrawal of support to the Arroyo government."
Bacarro said the fourth phase of the plot is the conduct of special operations targeting dozens of vital government and public installations, including Malacañang, Camp Aguinaldo, Camp Crame, Fort Bonifacio and prominent personalities.
"Operational Plan Trident shall capitalize on its ability to delay, disrupt and disperse government forces while they buy time to attract defectors and attain critical mass," the Army official also said.
The other documents seized from the Magdalo Group safe house included plans to recruit officers and men, including hundreds of enlisted personnel who took part in the short-lived Oakwood Mutiny in July 2003 who have been ordered released by a military court.
The documents also include a counter-mobility plan, which includes the use of metal spikes, immobilization of vehicles and sniping operations; surveillance of the Batasan Pambasan complex; and a list of targets of the special operations.
Bacarro said also recovered from the safe house were press releases of the Taongbayan at Kawal (Tabak), which has claimed responsibility for last month's bombings in Metro Manila and at the residence of suspected gambling lord Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda in Pampanga.
Bacarro said the press releases were composed a day before the bombings were carried out. "This (press releases) confirms earlier suspicion that the MKP and Tabak is one and the same organization," said Bacarro.
"Though (Oplan) Trident appears to be feasible, the probability of its implementation is slim, considering that no significant specific forces are stated to be committed. They don't have the necessary firearms to use and most of the key personalities involved are already neutralized," added Bacarro.
In the same press conference, Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina, chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region (CIDG-NCR), said a number of codenames were mentioned in the document as involved.
"We are decoding to determine their identities, we are trying to compare this to our intelligence information at the same to previous incidents, including the arrest of 1st Lieutenant (Lawrence) San Juan," said Dolina.
San Juan, a member of the Magdalo Group, was arrested by joint military and police operatives last February in Batangas, a month after he and three other fellow officers escaped from an Army detention facility in Fort Bonifacio.
San Juan has been slapped with a rebellion charge in connection with the failed plot to overthrow the Arroyo government last February 24, which was to be led by erstwhile First Scout Ranger regiment commander Danilo Lim.
AFP public information office chief Tristan Kison said there are attempts to lure enlisted personnel involved in the Oakwood Mutiny in July 2003 in the latest destabilization but they have not been successful.
"They have attempts to recruit those who were used in the Oakwood (incident), they were being recruited but they don't want to join," said Kison without identifying the personalities involved in the recruitment.
For his part, PNP spokesman Samuel Pagdilao said the plot would never succeed. "It has a slim of succeeding. Even in the PNP, there are no units in the PNP that will support this kind of plan. So there is really a very slim, zero chance."
The security officials presented during the press conference the chairman of FIlinvest II subdivision, Rannie Ludivica, to prove that the documents recovered from the Magdalo Group safe house were not planted by the raiding team.
"I personally saw the entry of the searching team. The items that they recovered were there so it's not true that the (pieces of) evidence were planted," said Ludivica, contradicting the statements of the lawyers of the arrested officers that the explosives and firearms recovered were planted by the raiding team. (VR/Sunnex)
(July 13, 2006 issue)
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