ZAMBOANGA CITY—Troops from the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) joined in the manhunt for the recapture of fugitive Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, who slipped from a police cordon at the height of the siege of Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City, the country’s business capital.

Wesmincom information officer Maj. Eugenio Batara Jr. said the troops are on the lookout for Faeldon to ensure that no place in Westmincom will serve as his safe haven. Batara said the Westmincom troops were ordered to arrest him at once.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Tuesday that prosecutors would ask the court to transfer Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and the 34 others charged with rebellion for the Peninsula Hotel takeover to the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

Interior Undersecretary Marius Corpus said that prosecutors would ask the Makati Court to transfer Trillanes and company from the custody of the Philippine National Police to the Bureau of Corrections.

“We have studied the matter carefully and weighed the factors regarding the safety and security of the accused, and decided that the best way to secure them while they are awaiting the trial of their rebellion case is to house them in Muntinlupa,” he said.

Wesmincom include the provinces of Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and this city.

The government has offered a P1- million reward for any information on Faeldon’s whereabouts.

National Police Director General Avelino Razon described Faeldon as armed and dangerous.

It will be recalled that after his escape from military custody in December 2005, Faeldon sent videos to some television stations that showed himself standing at the back of Wesmincom gymnasium while sending text messages.

Faeldon was arrested a month later in Malabon, Metro Manila.

Faeldon is a member of the mutinous Magdalo soldiers undergoing trial in connection with the 2003 Oakwood mutiny. He spent many years in the intelligence community and was a member of the Force Recon, an elite unit of the Marines.

Military lawyer Col. Pedro Herrera Davila said they would not oppose the move of the prosecutors to transfer the custody of Trillanes and his companions. Before the Peninsula Hotel siege on Thursday, Trillanes, Lim and the other soldiers were under the custody of the AFP and were detained in Fort Bonifacio and in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.

Meanwhile, National Capital Region Command commander Maj. Gen. Fernando Mesa said they would look into the possibility of asking the court, which is hearing the earlier coup charges against Trillanes and the members of Magdalo, to conduct its hearing inside Camp Aguinaldo or Camp Crame in order to avoid repeating the incident last week.

Mesa and Southern Police District director Chief Supt. Luizo Ticman met on Tuesday and assessed the operations they conducted during the rebellion last week.

Both agreed that they should come up with a procedure so that the police and the military can jointly respond in a faster pace, unlike last week when it took them several hours before they stormed the hotel and quelled the rebellion.

At the same time, two religious groups—Bangon Pilipinas National Renewal Movement and the Philippines for Jesus Movement (PJM)—urged the government to focus on the clamor of the rebel soldiers demanding a change in the corrupt system in the government instead of merely pushing for the prosecution of those involved in the Manila Peninsula Hotel standoff.

Evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva, PJM chairman and founder of Jesus is Lord Church worldwide, said the government could expect more similar protests until corruption charges are filed, investigated and resolved against high- ranking officials involved in large-scale corruption in the government, including people close to Malacañang. 

He also warned of eventual civil uprising if serious allegations of corruption, fraud and growing poverty continue to be put aside.

“The Filipino people have suffered long enough. Sen. Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danny Lim merely delivered what the nation has been clamoring—truth, righteousness and justice,” Bro. Villanueva in a statement on Tuesday

He further lamented: “Why is the government so strong against the rebels but so weak in fighting against clear and blatant evils, such as corruption, unabated killings of journalists and political leaders, and the grinding poverty in our society?”

Bangon Pilipinas is a movement that seeks moral renewal in the country’s political system, while PJM is the umbrella organization of over 4,000 born-again churches with over seven-million members nationwide.

Villanueva said the Arroyo administration has not fully investigated and resolved various corruption scandals like the “Hello Garci” issue, P700-million fertilizer scam, the $329-million national broadband deal with China’s ZTE Corp. and the blatant bribery attempt of local officials exposed by Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio.

“Incidents like the Manila [Peninsula] takeover will not stop until the doubts and charges that hang above Mrs. Arroyo’s election and her governance is resolved; until all the issues against her government have been properly addressed; until the growing poverty and economic inequity continue to go unabated...” said Villanueva, also president of Bangon Pilipinas.

Bishop Dan Balais, PJM national director, meanwhile, said the Manila Peninsula incident should serve as warning to the government to make serious reforms and answer the numerous corruption charges.

“May the government take the Manila Pen incident as a serious warning. We admonish our leaders to truly seek God’s face, lead the nation in humbling ourselves before the Lord and in repenting from our sins. Without true repentance, there can never be any healing,” Balais said.

He called on the Filipinos to be vigilant especially in prayers.

“Cursed is a nation who allows wickedness to prevail. But blessed are they who seek the Lord in humility and repentance. God has promised that if we seek His face, humble themselves and turn from our wicked ways, He will hear from heaven and heal our land,” Balais said. (With R. Acosta and E. Torres)

MAKATI Mayor and United Opposition (Uno) president Jejomar Binay said Tuesday the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) should instead investigate Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, after the latter admitted receiving advance intelligence reports about the walkout at the Makati court and the takeover of Manila Peninsula by the group led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

ZAMBOANGA CITY—Troops from the military’s Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) joined in the manhunt for the recapture of fugitive Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon, who slipped from a police cordon at the height of the siege of Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City, the country’s business capital.

DETAINED Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV may finally get his wish to attend a Senate hearing, thanks to fellow Sen. Miriam Santiago who introduced a resolution asking the ethics committee to “punish” the failed Oakwood mutiny leader for instigating another attempted uprising at the Peninsula Manila Hotel in Makati last Thursday.

THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) still has over two years before the next electoral exercise, but it should now start cleansing the padded voters’ list of at least two million double registrations, according to Sen. Loren Legarda.

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The League of Cities in the Philippines (LCP) has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to look into the legality of the formation of 16 new cities throughout the country.

IT’S a double whammy for lawyer Roel Pulido.

Less than two weeks after the House justice committee laid to rest Pulido’s impeachment complaint against President Arroyo, the House ethics committee junked his other complaint against Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. in connection with his alleged role in the approval of a franchise of a broadband company owned by his son, Jose III.

THE banks may go beyond the permissible limit—50 percent with government debt papers—that a portion of their capital may be backed by peso-denominated IOUs of government. There is, however, a condition.

The United States will forever be an ally of the Philippines and it would never support any move to change the government through any other means other than what was prescribed in the Constitution, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said on Tuesday.