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Manila: A high-ranking politician paid for the condominium units used by communist leaders for two-weeks prior to the failed mutiny led by a senator and right-wing rebel soldier by taking over a five-star hotel in Makati City, a senior official told Gulf News.
"The communist leaders who joined Senator-elect Antonio Trillanes and former Scout Rangers Chief Brig Gen Danilo Lim during a mutiny at the Peninsula Hotel had stayed at nearby Ritz Tower Condominium and Gilarmi Tower, prior to the November 29 failed mutiny," Philippine National Police Chief Avelino Razon said in an interview.
"A Makati-based politician had paid for the two places which served as safe houses for the leftist participants of the mutiny. I have sent policemen to check for some documents or pieces of evidence that might have been left by the communist leaders at these places," said Razon.
Closed-door meeting
Investigators are now verifying reports that Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay held a closed-door meeting with Trillanes and Brig Gen Lim hours before the hearing on their participation in a 2003 failed coup, at the Makati Regional Trial Court, said Razon. At the time, Binay was wearing a military outfit, other sources said.
Binay's security men, including Cpl Elmer Colon, who wore a wig during the march of Trillanes and Lim from the regional trial court of Makati City to the Peninsula Hotel, are now the subject of a manhunt.
They had escaped from the Peninsula Hotel after the mutineers were arrested. Several members of the 38-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines who stayed at the two places which were rented, allegedly by Mayor Binay, were already identified, said Razon, adding that policemen are now tracking them down.
Myrna Hombrebueno and Elizabeth Principe stayed in one unit of the Gilarmi Apartments before they were arrested separately, said Razon.
Hombrebueno was identified as common-law wife of CPP founding chairman Jose Ma Sison. She was arrested with Trillanes at the Peninsula Hotel.
Abducted
Principe, on the other hand, was arrested a day before the coup. Denying her participation, Principe said in a statement, "I was abducted by the military on November 28 after undergoing a checkup at the Fern Laboratory in Quezon City... Five or six members of the military forcibly abducted me. I was blindfolded, handcuffed, and for 72 hours, my ears were inundated with sounds. I was held incommunicado and interrogated inside the Intelligence Service Group at the Philippine Army headquarters. I was denied my right to counsel," Principe said.
The communist National Democratic Front, which has been holding on and off peace talks with the government since 1992, has demanded Principe's release.
She is covered by the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees that applies to consultants and members of negotiating panels of both the NDF and the Philippine government. At the same time, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said that civilian leaders spent millions for the failed coup.
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