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MANILA, PHILIPPINES - ROMAN Catholic bishops in the Philippines warned President Gloria Arroyo on Monday against granting a pardon to nine military officers convicted of mounting a failed coup five years ago.
The defence establishment on Sunday urged Mrs Arroyo to grant presidential clemency to the nine junior officers, who received heavy jail terms earlier this month after they pleaded guilty and apologised to the Filipino people.
'The government will not win any brownie points here because the public is not in favour of it,' said Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference's episcopal commission on prison pastoral care.
Armed forces chief of staff General Hermogenes Esperon had suggested to reporters on Sunday that the government wanted the convicted plotters back in the military ranks if they were pardoned.
However, Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro stressed 'they will already be disqualified from holding positions in the military.' There was no immediate reaction from the presidential palace.
In 2003, the group of nine officers led some 300 soldiers in taking over a luxury apartment-hotel in Manila's Makati financial district and calling on Mrs Arroyo and her top generals to step down over alleged corruption.
Their rebellion was put down in less than 24 hours.
Twenty-one other officers are still on trial, while another is at large.
Most of the ordinary soldiers accused of taking part in the uprising have been freed after serving time in military jails. -- AFP
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