Arroyo warns coup plotters

Arroyo's first year has been dogged by coup rumours

The President of the Philippines Gloria Arroyo has appeared on television to warn against any attempts to destabilise her government.

President Arroyo said the military and the police had the means to destroy anyone who moved against her.

She was speaking after the murder on Monday of a member of a shadowy military fraternity who said he had uncovered a coup plot.

I wish to tell plotters that their plans will not succeed

President Gloria Arroyo

The murdered man, Baron Cervantes, had said publicly that some members of a group he belonged to - the Young Officers Union (YOU) - had hatched a plot to unseat the president.

Other members of the group have rejected the allegations and have denied Mr Cervantes was a member of their organisation.

President Arroyo said Mr Cervantes' killers were trying to bring about a coup and derail the country's economic recovery.

"It is clear that the evil-doers behind this do not want us to lift ourselves out of poverty," she told TV viewers. "They want us to suffer more rather than for more Filipinos to progress.

"I wish to tell plotters that their plans will not succeed."

Coup rumours

Police have said they suspect a rift within the YOU may be behind Monday's murder.

Last week Mr Cervantes, a consultant to national security adviser Roilo Golez, told Manila radio stations that some members of the group had hatched a coup plot with some military officials.

The YOU was involved in some of the rightist military coup attempts against the then president Corazon Aquino in the 1980s. Its members were later granted amnesty under a peace agreement.

This is not the first time Mrs Arroyo has warned against coup attempts since taking over from deposed President Joseph Estrada last January.

Shortly after taking power she made a public show of confidence at a televised news conference by telephoning a general rumoured to be plotting a coup.

In front of reporters she spoke on a mobile phone - apparently to the general - and said the notion of a coup was "beyond the general's imagination".