Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 1-Aug-2008 01:45 hrs
L-R: Detained military officers Brigadier General Danilo Lim, Major General Renato Miranda and Colonel Ariel Querubin are seen before the start of court martial proceeding at the military headquarters, in Manila. A Philippine military court threw out an appeal by 28 military officers and said that charges of mutiny for trying to stir an uprising against President Gloria Arroyo would proceed.
A Philippine military court on Thursday threw out an appeal by 28 military officers and said that charges of mutiny for trying to stir an uprising against President Gloria Arroyo would proceed.
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"For lack of merit, the demurrer is denied," the court said in a decision read by Captain Edgardo Abad as it rejected an appeal to prevent the 28 from undergoing trial.
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"The facts of the charge constitute the punishable act of mutiny," the court said, ignoring recommendations by some pre-trial investigators that the mutiny charges be dropped and the 28 be charged with lesser offences.
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The court said these were only recommendations that it was not obliged to follow.
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The arraignment of the 28 proceeded with most of the officers refusing to enter a plea. This forced their lawyers to enter pleas of "not guilty" for them.
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Among the 28 accused are Major General Renato Miranda, former commandant of the Philippine Marines; Brigadier General Danilo Lim, former chief of an elite Army unit, and Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin.
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The accused were arrested shortly after the government announced in February 2006 that it had foiled a plot by a military cabal to destabilise the government of President Arroyo.
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If found guilty, the 28 could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
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Manila had crushed a similar military rising in July 2003, for which many officers have since pleaded guilty in exchange for lighter sentences. — AFP
