Category: Military

Police were attempting to put plastic handcuffs on us, as though we’re criminal suspects. We refused. We were ordered to fall in a single file…

Authorities have rounded up the remaining Magdalo soldiers involved in the six-hour standoff and herded them to one side of the Manila Peninsula Hotel lobby.

The soldiers were ordered to strip to their shorts and lie face down; their hands were bound behind their backs.

Two Magdalo soldiers–Armand Pontejos and Francisco Bose–were reported missing.

Authorities have banned journalists from taking footage inside the hotel.

Authorities arrested Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, former vice president Teofisto Guingona and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim at the Manila Peninsula Hotel shortly after 6 p.m.…

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim have decided to pull out of the Manila Peninsula Hotel after troops stormed the Makati-based hotel at 5 p.m., lobbing tear gas canisters and ramming an armored personnel carrier into the hotel lobby.

Trillanes and Lim, who proceeded to the hotel after walking out of this morning’s court hearing on the “Oakwood Mutiny,” said they wanted to avoid bloodshed.

“You have been witnesses and victims of the kind of ruthlessness that this administration has been giving to the people,” Trillanes told a press conference. “We’re going out for the sake of the safety of everybody. We cannot live with our conscience if some of you would get killed or hurt in the crossfire.”

Only 20 journalists are left at the Manila Peninsula Hotel, including myself. We are holed up in several of the hotel’s function rooms, along with…

Photos I took from this morning’s march from the Makati courthouse to the Manila Peninsula Hotel:

It’s tense here inside the Manila Peninsula Hotel. We’re staying put even after National Capital Region police chief Geary Barias ordered the evacuation of the…

Here are the details of the Oakwood Agreement posted on Sundalo:

The following are the terms of the Oakwood Agreement, which was approved by the so-called Magdalo soldiers and the government represented by Gen. Roy Cimatu (Ret.):

Only the five (5) leaders named will suffer the consequences of the actions of the whole group at Oakwood. The five (5) are: Cpt Gary Alejano PN(M), Cpt Gerardo Gambala PA, Cpt Milo Maestrecampo PA, LTSG James Layug PN and LTSG Antonio Trillanes IV. All the rest shall only be admonished under the provisions of AW 105.

There will be an independent investigation on the status of RSBS.

There will be an independent investigation on the selling of arms and ammunition to the enemies of the state.

There will be an independent investigation on the bombings in Davao and other areas in Mindanao.

There will be an independent investigation on the extent of corruption in the AFP.

Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim read the following statement in a press conference he and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV held at the Manila Peninsula Hotel:

Today, we address all decent Filipinos to announce that now is the time to end the sufferings and miseries inflicted upon us by the illegitimate Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government and start a new life, a new Philippines. The die is cast pursuant to our constitutional mandate as protector of the people and state.

And by these acts the officers and men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police supported by the masses of our people and the various political forces give substance to the constitutional provisions which says the Philippines is a democratic and republican state.

Continue readingLim calls for Arroyo’s removal

It was about 10:30 in the morning when the Makati regional trial court resumed hearing the charges against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and 30 other Magdalo officers for their role in the so-called “Oakwood Mutiny” on July 27, 2003.

Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, chief of the First Scout Ranger Regiment, was on the witness stand. He had been summoned to testify on the “Oakwood Agreement” that was forged with the government.

Lim said under the agreement, only five leaders of the supposed mutiny would be charged and the rest would be admonished.