Coup leader wants Manila's Arroyo toppled in poll
MANILA, May 9 (Reuters) Navy Lieutenant Antonio Trillanes has not given up the fight to topple the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In detention for leading a failed coup in 2003, the young officer is mounting a non-violent challenge this year, campaigning for a seat in the upper house of Congress in next week's mid-term elections.
''There are no more reasons for her to stay,'' Trillanes, wearing a sports shirt and jeans, told a group of foreign correspondents at a military prison in the capital.
''If you want to really serve our people, she must be removed first. Genuine reforms could only be carried out under a fresh government.'' Trillanes is detained at the Marines barracks in the capital with 28 other young officers, awaiting trial in a civilian court for attempting to grab power in 2003, seizing a high-rise apartment building at the heart of Manila's financial centre.
A military tribunal is separately trying a mutiny case.
Trillanes was relaxed and friendly when he met journalists at a small reception hall, just outside the prison, enclosed by high and thick walls of cement and barbed wire.
Sitting across a concrete counter, Trillanes talked about his political platform to raise soldiers' pay, professionalise the military and end rampant corruption as unarmed guards watched and listened throughout the interview.
''I am confident all the 11 opposition candidates would win in the Senate race if elections would be held honestly,'' he said, appealing to fellow soldiers not to take sides and rig elections to favour administration candidates.
''We expect this government to cheat again. We want them to cheat again so the people can stand up and tell them enough is enough.'' Arroyo is not contesting the election but votes will be cast on May 14 for half the 24-member Senate, the entire 275-seat House of Representatives and about 18,000 local government posts.
Trillanes is not the only prisoner fighting the election.
Gregorio Honasan, a former colonel and the alleged mastermind of the coup plot, won a court order allowing him temporary freedom to campaign for a Senate seat as an independent candidate.
Nur Misuari, a former university professor who organised the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist group, is seeking a gubernatorial position on the troubled southern island of Jolo, where his supporters are battling 3,000 soldiers.
On the central island of Cebu, a suspected communist rebel leader known as Ka Jigger is campaigning from inside an army jail for a seat in his hometown council.
The elections agency said coup plotters, communist and Muslim rebels and even suspected criminals can run for public office as long as they have not been convicted.
''No,
this
is
not
my
ticket
for
freedom,''
said
Trillanes.
''I
can
serve
the
people
even
from
inside
my
detention
cell.''
REUTERS
GL
VV1451