Bad Boys

When 296 mutinous soldiers tromped out of Makati's Oakwood Premier serviced apartments last week, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo survived her greatest challenge in 19 months in office.

Or did she?

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The soldiers are suspected of being only the rump of a conspiracy that intended regime change. "There are plotters, operators, financiers and backers, both in and out of government, who are still in the cold," Arroyo told a business group last week. According to Senator Rodolfo Biazon, vice chairman of the Senate committee on defense and a former military Chief of Staff, more military men could be tempted to challenge the government. "If not addressed at once," he warns, "we can expect a bigger, scarier attempt in the not-too-distant future."

Arroyo is simultaneously playing good- and bad-cop with her disgruntled grunts. The government charged the mutineers with rebellion and they will also be court martialed. But Arroyo also released $1.8 million for new equipment for the rank and file, and appointed two special commissions to suggest solutions to the rebels' gripes. "Not all of us have been accounted for," warned Antonio Trillanes, one of the mutiny leaders, in a radio interview last week.

With reporting by Reported by Michael Schuman and Nelly Sindayen/Manila

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