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Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Wanted ex-senator Honasan falls
MANILA (2nd Update 10:26 a.m.) -- Captured former senator Gregorio Honasan on Wednesday tried to elude pursuing police and military agents who caught up with him in Green Meadows Subdivision in Barangay Ugong, Pasig City, officials said.
Senior Superintendent Asher Dolino, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said in a press conference in Camp Crame that as a result of the pursuit, Honasan sustained injuries on his feet.
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Honasan is now at the Camp Crame hospital to undergo treatment.
The former senator, wearing blue jeans and a black shirt, was later seen in television footage being transferred in a wheel chair to a hospital because he sprained his leg.
He suffered a cut on one of his toes and sprained his right foot when he tried to "evade the arresting officers" from the police and military intelligence services, national police spokesman Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao said.
Dolino said they received a tip at about 6 p.m. that Honasan was in his house in Industrial Valley Subdivision in Marikina City. They later saw a maroon Toyota Revo leave the senator's house and they trailed the vehicle as it went around Metro Manila until it parked outside a townhouse in Green Meadows, Pasig City.
The police pounced on Honasan inside the townhouse but the former legislator ran away but the lawmen managed to catch him.
PNP Chief Oscar Calderon in a press conference said the operation to arrest Honasan was a joint effort of the CIDG and the intelligent unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Honasan will be presented to the court at the soonest possible time, Calderon added.
Calderon said they will issue a medical bulletin later in the day to update the public on Honasan’s present condition.
Honasan, a veteran of coup attempts in the 1980s and a popular figure among many soldiers, was brought to Manila's police headquarters after he tried to elude arrest by jumping from the second floor of a house in Quezon City, said police Senior Superintendent Asher Dolina.
Honasan has been indicted in connection with a short-lived 2003 mutiny by about 300 junior officers, and is facing another charge of coup d'etat and rebellion over a failed coup in February.
"His fingerprints are in all the coup attempts. He is the guru," Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said. "I think (his arrest) will help stabilize the country."
The government has offered P5 million (US$98,000; euro1,300) for Honasan, who had gone into hiding since February, when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a weeklong state of emergency after accusing military "adventurists," communist rebels and civilian financial backers of plotting to oust her.
Dozens of opposition activists and military officers are facing charges.
As a young idealistic officer campaigning for military reform, Honasan, 58, gained fame when he led a failed 1986 plot to overthrow late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, which set off defections and triggered the "people power" revolt that toppled the strongman.
The following year, he tried and failed to topple Marcos' successor, Corazon Aquino, hiding for five months before he was caught. He escaped from a prison ship, was arrested again in 1988 and led another coup attempt in 1989. He later was granted amnesty and won a Senate seat in 1995.
Reflecting the turmoil of his life, he reportedly named one of his daughters "Coup-kie."
"I find myself with a few more pounds, with more white hair, going through exactly the same message, the same situation as I did a few decades back," he said in an interview following the 2003 mutiny in Manila. "I categorically say that my life, if I can help it, as a renegade, as a coup plotter, as a rebel is over."
The Philippine military has been struggling to ease restiveness within its ranks, fight corruption and modernize equipment. It has played key roles in nonviolent "people power" revolts that have ousted two presidents, including Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada.(AP/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (November 15, 2006 issue)
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