Army Declares End to Philippines Uprising

Government forces drove mutineers from one military camp today and tightened their noose around rebels holed up in another. The armed forces chief declared the two-day uprising “finished.”

However, about 150 elite troops joined the secessionist rebellion and marched late today into the center of a major industrial city on the north coast of Mindanao island.

There was no sign that the rebellion was spreading to other major cities of Mindanao or that the insurgents were drawing much civilian support.

Witnesses said about 200 mutineers abandoned a battalion headquarters near Butuan, 500 miles south of Manila, after two government T-28 aircraft bombed and strafed the garrison. One rebel was wounded, witnesses said.

Manila radio station DZXL, reporting from Butuan, said the planes made more than 10 passes over the garrison and set several buildings on fire.

Rebels led by Col. Alexander Noble seized the garrison at Butuan and the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division in Cagayan de Oro early Thursday. He proclaimed an independent republic on Mindanao, the second-largest Philippine island.

Noble remained in control of the division headquarters at Camp Evangelista. Government reinforcements, however, were flown into the city and set up roadblocks.

The country’s military chief of staff, Gen. Renato de Villa, told a news conference that “for all intents and purposes, the pocket rebellion . . . is finished.”

“What remains to be done is simply to recover the camp and neutralize their forces,” he said.