(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-29 15:18

 

Armed soldiers walk down a street on their way to a luxury hotel in Makati City, metro Manila, November 29, 2007. [Agencies]

All the soldiers were sporting red armbands with what appeared to be the letter "I" emblazoned in the middle of a white sun. The symbol's meaning was not immediately known.

There have been at least seven coup attempts in the Philippines since 1986 as the armed forces have maintained a central role in the nation's political life since the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos that year.

But Arroyo has been under particular pressure since a tape recording emerged of her allegedly conniving with an election commission official to help orchestrate her 2004 re-election.

She admitted it was a mistake to have called the official while the vote count had not yet been finished, but denied any wrongdoing.

Since then she has fought off impeachment attempts - while being regularly accused of having improperly won the election - as well as actual and alleged coups.

The renegade soldiers stormed the hotel on Thursday after walking out of a Manila court hearing where they were on trial for a 2003 attempted coup. That uprising failed when the armed forces declined to join the rebel soldiers.

Thursday's dramatic events came just a month after Arroyo gave her predecessor and nemesis, popular ex-film star Joseph Estrada, a presidential pardon on charges of corruption.

The government said the pardon was granted after the 70-year-old Estrada agreed not to pursue any elective office.

He has always insisted his 2001 ouster from the presidential palace was a coup organised by the military, the powerful Catholic church and the country's political elites.

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