Philippine authorities have uncovered a well-financed plot to destabilize the government following the arrest of five military-linked conspirators, the military chief of staff said yesterday.
"There is already evidence that firearms are being transported, some recruitment is ongoing, including inside the chain [of command]," General Hermogenes Esperon said.
He cited the arrest of five men, former colleagues in the army's elite Scout Ranger regiment, on Tuesday while transporting firearms to a Manila house.
Esperon said the plot would not succeed, citing a failed attempt in November by senator and ex-navy officer Antonio Trillanes to mount a mutiny against Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
The attempted mutiny, which saw Trillanes and a group of supporters occupy a hotel for several hours, received no support from soldiers and was swiftly quelled.
"We have always been ready for these kinds of activities, we can put down destabilization moves," Esperon said.
Esperon said the armed forces were searching for the financiers behind the group, remarking that the five men held on Tuesday could not have afforded to rent the safehouse where they were caught.
He hinted that there would be more arrests, saying: "We are not letting our guard down. We are making follow up [operations] and so just keep watching."
Arroyo has fended off several efforts by renegade military men to unseat her since she was installed in a military-backed popular uprising in 2001.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
RSS