MANILA: Two former Philippine soldiers who took part in a failed coup in 2003 were jailed yesterday for 12 years, officials said, after both spurned President Benigno Aquino’s offer of pardon.
Ex-army first lieutenants Lawrence San Juan and Rex Bolo were found guilty of coup d’etat, court official Maria Rhodora Peralta said. “The judge found them guilty as participants of the coup, not as coup leaders,” she said.
The duo were among several hundred mutineers who seized a hotel in Manila’s financial district in 2003 in a failed bid by a group of junior officers to force Aquino’s predecessor Gloria Arroyo to resign over alleged corruption. Arroyo crushed the revolt, the first of three mounted against her during the nearly 10 years she spent in power, and later pardoned some of the participants. She is now detained at a military hospital while on trial for allegedly plundering $8.8 million from state lottery funds during her years in office from 2001 to 2010.
Aquino, who came to power in 2010 after promising to fight corruption, granted amnesty that same year to all officers and soldiers who had risen up against Arroyo.
However, San Juan and Bolo, on trial at the time, both rejected the new president’s offer and chose to have their names cleared through the civilian court, military spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos said.
“They were offered (amnesty), but they refused it,” Burgos said, adding that they were the only two to reject the pardon. Both had been expelled from military service, like the officers who joined the revolts and later accepted the amnesty offer, said Burgos. AFP
