Philippine defense chief dismisses speculation on coup
Philippine defense chief dismisses speculation on coup
MANILA (Agencies): New Philippine Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Sunday dismissed speculation that disgruntled soldiers might attempt a coup to try and restore deposed president Joseph Estrada to power.
"The government is stable and I am confident about this," Ermita told reporters.
"Definitely none," he said, when asked about Manila newspaper reports that a small group of disgruntled soldiers was trying to sow disunity in the ranks, if not planning an outright coup.
New President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took power on Jan. 20 after the Supreme Court declared the presidency vacant, capping five days of protests by tens of thousands of Filipinos calling for Estrada's resignation.
Estrada has said he only temporarily relinquished his powers to Arroyo and referred to her only as an "acting president," suggesting he might try to re-take the presidency.
Arroyo named Ermita as acting defense chief after former defense secretary, Orlando Mercado, resigned in protest against Arroyo's appointment as her national security adviser a retired general who Mercado had ordered investigated over pension funds.
Widespread protests against Estrada broke out earlier this month after a Senate impeachment court trying him on corruption charges suppressed bank records which prosecutors said would have shown that the former movie actor had enriched himself while in office.
The impeachment trial was triggered by accusations that Estrada had received millions of dollars in kickbacks from illegal gambling syndicates.
Meanwhile, the Philippines' main Muslim insurgent group said on Sunday it was willing to resume peace talks with Manila on condition that charges against its leaders were dropped and government troops were removed from its fallen camps.
Aleem Elias Macarandas, a member of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's (MILF) peace panel, said the government of newly installed President Arroyo should grant these demands as a goodwill gesture.
Immediately after meeting with her top security advisers in her first day of office, Arroyo ordered a resumption of talks with the 13,000-strong MILF, which has been waging a two-decade rebellion for an independent Islamic state in the south.
She had also appointed former military officials to key posts in her government, including Ermita and executive secretary Renato de Villa.
But Macarandas said government should first pull out its forces from several of its camps that fell last year under Estrada's all out war policy against the rebels.
He said government prosecutors should also dismiss murder charges filed against several MILF leaders in connection with a wave of deadly bombings in Manila that killed 22 people.
"This should be given back to the MILF and developed into zones of peace," Macarandas told local reporters in the southern city of Iligan. "The warrants of arrest (against the MILF leaders) will only disrupt any and all kinds of negotiations because it will prevent freedom of movement (for MILF negotiators)."
Talks with the MILF collapsed after the fall of their camps, forcing their leaders to declare a jihad or holy war against Manila.
But Macarandas praised Arroyo's appointment of ex-military officials in her cabinet, saying this could help speed up the peace process because they would be able to give her a "clear view of the Mindanao situation."
MILF guerrillas have also intensified this month their attacks on government installations and army outposts in the central provinces of the main southern island of Mindanao.
In the latest attack, MILF guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades into an army command post in the town of Barira in Maguindanao province last Friday, triggering sporadic clashes but no immediate report of casualties on either side.