Tight security ring thrown around six detained colonels

By Anthony Vargas, Reporter

Manila ---The military threw a tight security ring around the six Marine colonels involved in the failed February coup attempt following reports of sympathizers planning to free them.

Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, chief of public information of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, on Wednesday said the reported plan prompted the military leadership to consider transferring the six to a more secure detention facility.

The six colonels—Ariel Querubin, Orlando de Leon, Januario Caringal, Armando Banez, Custodio Parcon and Achilles Segumalian—were currently being detained at a Marine base in Manila. They are among 13 Marine officers and 25 Army officers, including a brigadier general, detained for their alleged involvement in a plot with communist insurgents and opposition figures to bring down the government in February.

According to the AFP spokesman, Gen. Hermogenes Espe-ron, the AFP chief, directed Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, Flag Officer in Command (FOIC), to move the six to Fort San Felipe at Sangley Point, Cavite the soonest possible.

Originally, the AFP chief planned to transfer them to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal. But the FOIC suggested the Navy base in Cavite.

The FOIC, Bacarro pointed out, is the immediate commander of the Marine officers, and as such he is given the authority to choose where the accused should be held

All six officers are facing several charges in connection with the failed coup attempt in February. The plan, allegedly hatched by Querubin and Army General Danilo Lim, called for a mass withdrawal of support to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The two and others joining their cause hoped that the announcement would precipitate a general military uprising. Instead, a standoff set it, as other high-ranking officers refused to go along with the plan.

In previous years, the military was embarrassed by cases of accused coup plotters escaping from military stockades, raising suspicion about its loyalty to the civilian authority.

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