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| Southeast Asia |
| Philippine Defense Secretary Resigns |
| 2003-08-30 |
| Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes has resigned, becoming the second government casualty of last month's military mutiny. He said he hoped his action would give the president a free hand to deal with alleged coup plotters. The resignation on Friday was the latest blow to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who the day before accused "disgruntled and disenfranchised politicians" of trying to destabilize her government. The mutineers, who ended their July 27 rebellion peacefully after 19 hours, had accused Reyes of corruption and masterminding a deadly bombing in the southern Philippines early this year to get U.S. anti-terrorism funding. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Oh this is the tip of the iceberg as far as the Philippines go. A couple of weeks ago a senator accused the First Gentleman (The president's husband) of having secret bank account under aliases and accepting bribes to those accounts as well as funneling funds and contributions there. The Senator's 'star whitness' (a former courier of the first gentlemen) was either abducted or rescued from the senator's offices. Hmm... its a regular soap opera... Meanwhile they cant seem to capture 150 odd terrorists. As for this the problem is that there ae accusations of military generals accepting bribes and kickbacks from the terrorists and kidnappers. The above mentioned Senator is under investigation for being involved in kidnapping and corruption himself. That missionary who was kidnapped and finallly rescued (I dont remember her name...) noted in her book that the terrorist were in contact with the military and would get 'tips' before a raid and could escape. The mutineers accused the military of staging a deadly bombing in Davo City in order to get more military assistance from the United States. Now the government is saying that the mutineers were 'misguided' by politicians for political gain. I love the Philippines. The people there are great (I married one and love her family) but the government is corrupt. |
| Posted by: GregJ 2003-8-30 7:17:17 PM |
| #1 The mutineers, who ended their July 27 rebellion peacefully after 19 hours, had accused Reyes of corruption and masterminding a deadly bombing in the southern Philippines early this year to get U.S. anti-terrorism funding. Sounds like these are corrupt soldiers preemptively accusing Arroyo of corruption to score points. Probably the same group of people opposed to a US role in wiping out the terrorist groups, since this would dry up the flow of bribes to the mutineers. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-30 1:05:31 PM |