Estrada's mistress on coup charges
Laarni Enriquez, mistress of imprisoned former president Joseph Estrada, yesterday was charged with rebellion, attempting a coup d'etat and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
The former movie starlet, known widely as Estrada's favourite mistress, is said to have sheltered renegade soldiers before and during a failed power grab by junior military officers at the Oakwood hotel on July 27.
Her posh townhouse in Mandaluyong City, suburban Manila, was raided during the rebellion. Ammunition and the distinctive red armbands and flags used by the renegades were found inside. Authorities said they had identified the three marine officers and 13 enlisted men who used Enriquez's home from the pay slips, firearms licences and other documents they left behind.
In another development, Lieutenant-General Rodolfo Garcia, the armed forces vice chief of staff, revealed yesterday that investigators had found a destroyed computer disk inside an Oakwood hotel room occupied by renegade officers.
The disk had been bent to crack its plastic casing, but military intelligence repaired it and lifted its contents to reveal the names of more than 100 people who were not at the Oakwood.
'Many of them remain in their respective [military] units and they are now the subject of continuing dialogue with their commanders and are being asked about the incident,' General Garcia said.
As for the 244 enlisted men involved in the uprising, he said many of them had claimed their commanding officers misled them into believing they were on a legitimate 'anti-insurgency operation'.
The government said yesterday it would soon disclose the civilian financiers of the foiled putsch.
Former military intelligence chief Victor Corpus said the soldiers had originally hoped to muster a large enough force to attack the presidential palace and assassinate President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
