Manila Seizes Chief of August Coup Attempt

The leader of the bloodiest coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino was captured Wednesday night in an anti-climactic raid on a suburban townhouse where he and four of his followers gave up without firing a shot.

Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan, who has waged a propaganda campaign against the Aquino government in the 3 1/2 months since he and hundreds of his dissident military followers attempted a coup that left more than 50 dead and hundreds injured, gave up just after 7 p.m. when soldiers on an “ordinary” stakeout spotted him in the suburban compound in Manila’s Valle Verde subdivision.

Several of the more than 30 arresting officers smiled and saluted Honasan as they led him to a waiting military van. One officer got out of the van and hugged the renegade colonel, who clearly still enjoys considerable sympathy within the government’s 155,000-member armed forces.

The four rebel soldiers arrested with Honasan were then led to the van in handcuffs, but the colonel was unshackled.

According to several witnesses at the scene, one of the officers making the arrest apologized to Honasan, who is known universally by his nickname, “Gringo.”

The armed forces chief, Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, said that Honasan’s arrest was “good news for the government, the people and the armed forces of the Philippines.”

Aquino issued a statement saying that she was “really overjoyed” by the arrest, which she said “should reassure all peace-loving Filipinos that our country is headed for better times.”

Honasan, who is now being held in the same Manila military camp that he and his rebel forces fled Aug. 28 amid a ground and air assault by loyalist soldiers, made no public statement, and Ramos did not allow reporters to interview him. But Ramos and he were pictured together on government television late Wednesday night, chatting amiably in Ramos’ office.

During a press conference after the arrest, Ramos said Honasan will be “treated honorably” and that “due process will take its course.” The rebel leader faces charges of rebellion, sedition and treason, all of which could bring him life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Honasan’s capture came less than a week before the leaders of six southeast Asian nations are to meet in Manila for a summit. Many Philippine military intelligence officers feared that Honasan and his rebel group would attempt to disrupt the meeting.

Helps Summit Security

Ramos said the arrest “has removed at least one large problem for those of us who are making all of the necessary preparations for the summit.”

The armed forces are deploying thousands of troops in an unprecedented security operation to protect the visiting leaders of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Brunei, not only from attacks by Honasan’s extreme right-wing military supporters, but from Communist guerrillas as well.

After Honasan’s coup attempt in August, Aquino confided to visitors that she believed that dissent within the armed forces--dissent that Honasan turned into support for his coup attempt--was the most serious problem facing her 21-month-old government.

In recent letters and public statements published in national newspapers, however, Honasan had said that he is pleased with the moves that Aquino has made to meet the demands of his rebel group. Since the coup attempt, Aquino has increased the pay of soldiers; vowed to crack down on government corruption, even by members of her own family; fired controversial Cabinet members whom Honasan’s group viewed as leftists and taken a harder line against the Communist insurgency.

It was unclear, however, whether Honasan, a combat officer known nationwide for such antics as parachuting into war zones with a live snake around his neck, would emerge from Wednesday night’s arrest with the same panache that accompanied his flight underground, when an artillery and air attack on his positions in Camp Aguinaldo, Manila’s main military camp, quelled the coup attempt.

He Was ‘Under the Bed’

Delia Anjao, a maid at the townhouse where Honasan was captured, told government television soon after the arrest that she and the other household help hid in the bathroom when the government forces raided the house.

“When we came out of the bathroom,” the maid stated, “he (Honasan) was under the bed.”

The maid’s statement could not be confirmed but it may have been a play on accusations by Manila columnist Luis Beltran that Aquino hid under her bed during Honasan’s attack on her home near the presidential palace. Aquino sued Beltran for libel over the allegation and took reporters on a tour of her bedroom to prove that there was no room to hide under her bed.

Manila’s military commander, Gen. Ramon Montano, who headed the 3 1/2-month hunt for Honasan, told reporters that “a foreign correspondent was found in the area” at the time of the arrest.

Deputy presidential press secretary Daniel Gozo said military investigators identified the reporter as American free-lance writer Steve Levine, who Guzo said apparently was about to interview Honasan when the arrest was made. Honasan has given nearly a dozen interviews in so-called “safehouses.”

Until now, the military’s inability to find Honasan had been embarrassing for the armed forces and for Aquino. The president had pleaded several times with the press, most of whom were led to Honasan while blindfolded.

After the arrest, Levine issued a statement saying that he, too, had been blindfolded before Honasan’s men led him to the townhouse Wednesday night. He said he was waiting for Honasan when the raid took place and that the government soldiers released him.

Honasan had played a key role in the successful 1986 revolt against Ferdinand E. Marcos, which was led by his former boss, then-Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, and Gen. Ramos. Enrile, who Aquino later fired, has denied involvement in Honasan’s rebellion.