Retired Brigadier-General Angel Sadang confirmed for the first time that his group, the Association of General and Flag Officers or Agfo, had been approached by generals and colonels in active service for help in the planned withdrawal of support from the president.

Mr Guingona, president of the administration Lakas Party co-chaired by Mrs Arroyo, recently angered party colleagues when he said the country could plunge into bloody civil unrest by December if the government failed to address corruption. He denied being part of a plot but admitted that he had been approached.

Earlier this month, former military intelligence chief Brigadier-General Victor Corpus said no colonel or general had been found to be involved in any coup plot.

General Sadang said Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes, who headed the attempted coup in the Makati district of Manila on July 27, continued to be an object of admiration within the military. A manifesto, purportedly from enlisted men, is now circulating in army camps echoing the reform demands of renegade junior officers.

It warned Mrs Arroyo that her government would fall by December if she did not fulfil her promise to increase soldiers' pay and implement bureaucratic reforms.

It also said if administration and opposition politicians did not stop politicking at public expense, they too would be removed from office.

Agfo's president, the retired Brigadier-General Ernesto Gidaya, openly assured the president yesterday of 'our support for her administration'.

Yet the slim attendance from the 647-strong organisation demonstrated otherwise.

General Gidaya disclosed the office of national security adviser Roilo Golez had wanted 500 members to attend. 'We cannot bring 500 so we will just bring those who are available,' he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Mr Golez, a former naval officer, said he arranged the meeting to find out the root causes of the destabilisation. Among those who snubbed the meeting was retired Brigadier-General Pete Navarro, because 'I am not a hypocrite'.

He said if the government did not 'handle well' the allegations that the president's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, laundered funds, 'the government will collapse'.

In contrast to the presidential palace meeting, a Catholic mass held for the jailed coup plotters on Wednesday easily drew about 500 relatives, friends and supporters, all wearing red armbands.

It was officiated by an equally controversial figure, Monsignor Teodoro Bacani, who has been accused of molesting a secretary.

Bishop Bacani said the siege of Oakwood by more than 300 officers and enlisted soldiers was a 'wake-up call for the nation' but was not an acceptable means of instituting reform.

Yesterday a court denied the request of the five leaders who took over the Oakwood hotel in Makati to be detained elsewhere other than the heavily secured military intelligence compound.

The court, however, ordered intelligence chief Brigadier-General Pedro Cabuay to respect the officers' constitutional rights and give them two hours of outdoor exercise a day.

The dissatisfaction with the government, which started with junior officers, seems to be spreading even among retired generals.

Yesterday Mrs Arroyo finally fulfilled her promise to renegade officers to probe the Davao City bombings in March and April, which the officers blamed on General Corpus and former defence secretary Angelo Reyes.