Rebel soldiers surrender after army raid in hotel

Rebel Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes (L) joins hands with rebel officer Lieutenant Senior Grade James Layug (R) and others during their surrender to government security forces, who stormed the luxury Peninsula hotel in Manila's Makati financial district yesterday. Philippine troops stormed a Manila hotel in a flurry of gunfire and tear gas, forcing the surrender of a band of renegade soldiers who were demanding that President Gloria Arroyo step down. Photo: AFP

Philippine troops stormed a Manila hotel in a flurry of gunfire and tear gas yesterday, forcing the surrender of a band of renegade soldiers who were demanding that President Gloria Arroyo step down.
The rebels, who seized and occupied a luxury hotel to drive home their criticisms of the Arroyo government, gave themselves up after a dramatic confrontation broadcast live on television screens around the world.
After the rebels ignored an army deadline to surrender, two armoured personnel carriers rammed into the building and elite troops poured into the interior, which was awash in tear gas and the sound of bursts of gunfire.
"We are going out for the safety of everybody," said Senator Antonio Trillanes, one of the rebel leaders, announcing the surrender after the assault began.
"We won't be able to live with our consciences if some of you get hit or get killed in the crossfire," he said to journalists and others who were inside with the rebels. He said he was ready to face the consequences of his actions.
Trillanes, a navy lieutenant who was elected senator in May while still on trial for a failed 2003 coup against Arroyo, was hauled into a prison bus along with another of the rebellion's leaders, Brigadier General Danilo Lim.
Teofisto Guingona, a former Philippine vice president, had been inside and was also taken away amid a phalanx of police and security forces massed outside the Peninsula Hotel in the heart of the capital's financial district.
It was a quick conclusion to what had apparently been a well orchestrated move by Trillanes and Lim, who led about 30 troops and security guards that barged into the hotel after leaving a court hearing into a 2003 coup attempt.
As they read their demands inside the hotel, an Internet website was announced which had statements from the two men and a litany of complaints against Arroyo, who has survived multiple coup and impeachment attempts.
The renegades urged the president to resign and called on the military, a crucial force in this vast Southeast Asian island nation with the power to make and break its leaders, to turn against her.
The website also urged Filipinos who supported them to gather outside the hotel, in an echo of the "people power" movement that saw millions take to the streets to help force the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.