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.