Threats to destabilise the Philippine government of President Gloria Arroyo still remain despite the arrest of a renegade military officer, a military spokesperson said on Monday.
Although he would not give details, Lieutenant Colonel Tristan Kison said a shadowy group had been trying to recruit junior officers.
”There was intent but the group lacked the capability,” Kison told reporters.
”We discovered the recruitment at a very early stage but managed to nip it in the bud,” he said.
Asked if the threat of a coup still remained, Kison said: ”The threat is always there.”
His comments came just days after the recapture of marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon, who was among 300 officers and men who launched a failed rebellion against the president in 2003.
Kison would not say whether Faeldon himself was part of a wider conspiracy to recruit junior officers.
Faeldon escaped in December from military detention, embarrassing the government and fuelling rumours of a brewing destabilisation plot. Four other officers, also implicated in the rebellion, escaped early this month.
Faeldon was caught in the company of his alleged lover, a woman member of the military panel prosecuting the rebel officers.
The woman, Captain Cadelaria Rivas, has been taken into custody and may be charged with harbouring Faeldon.
Arroyo has become increasingly unpopular after her political foes last year floated audiotapes purporting to show her and an elections officer plotting to cheat in the May 2004 polls. She has denied any wrongdoing but has admitted to an error in judgement for calling an elections official.
She survived an impeachment vote in Congress in September, but her key allies have abandoned her amid mounting calls for her to step down.
Members of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on Sunday urged more accountability for public officials, saying that a probe to determine the truth behind allegations against Arroyo must continue.
Arroyo spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said the president welcomed the bishops’ concern and that she was ”open to all and just fair means under the law to ferret out the truth”. – AFP
