Rebel Soldiers in the Philippines Agree to Return to Their Barracks - 2003-07-27

In the Philippines, rebel soldiers who had taken refuge in a shopping complex in Manila have agreed to return to their barracks. The details of the agreement that peacefully ended a nineteen-hour standoff have not yet been announced. However, Gloria Arroyo, the President of the Philippines, stated in a press conference that the cases of the two hundred and ninety soldiers involved in the rebellion would be handled within the framework of military law. The rebel soldiers, after seizing the shopping complex in an upscale neighborhood of Manila early this morning, claimed they had bombed the stores in the complex. The soldiers accused Arroyo's government of corruption and demanded her resignation. Eventually, after several hours of negotiations with government representatives, the soldiers withdrew their demand for the president's resignation but called for the resignation of the defense minister and heads of the intelligence and police agencies. Arroyo had ordered government forces, who immediately surrounded the shopping complex after the rebels took refuge there, to use force if necessary to remove the rebels from the complex. Before the agreement for the rebel soldiers to return to their barracks, two deadlines had expired, but no shots were fired until the end of the incident.